North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Doreen Howard" <gardendiva@charter.net>]

Does anyone grow shipova?  And, yes, Lee, I've read the chapter in your book 
on it!  If you grow it, how much pruning do you do in late winter?  From the 
looks of my tree and from what I've read, the scaffolds should grow wide on 
their own.  Have you had to weigh down branches to achieve wide crotches or 
notch buds or anything else?  Have you had problems with fire blight?  BTW, 
my shipova is on dwarfing stock and has been in the ground almost a year. 
The theory is that is should fruit sooner than the normal 7-8 years.

My second question.  Has anyone tried bagging Asian pears?  The apple 
bagging experiment I did last year was 100 percent successful.  I'm 
wondering if Asian pears will benefit, too.

Any and all advise is appreciated.
Doreen Howard