North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[rmelrose@danvilleVT.net]

> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed Jan 31 13:52:37 2007
> From: Deb Schneider <debs@yahoo.com>
> Subject: [NAFEX] Pear variety comments
> To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID: <858789.82560.qm@web31801.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> 
> My husband and I love pears and have gradually been planting our small 
> orchard.  So far we have a Comice, Ure, Warren and Atlantic.  The Comice 
> has grown very well and I expect it to flower this year.  The other three 
> don't seem to be doing much.  Two are within fifteen feet of the Comice on 
> the same type of soil, so I am not sure what is slowing them down.  Has 
> anyone seen trees that don't seem to grow well the first few years take off 
> at a later date?  Do you think transplanting these trees to a different 
> location might be worth trying?
>    
>   We want to add several other pears this year: Nova, Manning-Miller, 
> Southworth, Summercrisp and Stacey.  Any comments pro or con on these 
> varieties?  Three are self-fertile, which is something I prefer having 
> spotty luck with getting things going (at least there is HOPE that some 
> fruit will come at some point!)  Fireblight is an issue here.  We are in 
> zone 5b/6 in SE Ohio.
>    
>   Thanks for any help.
>    
>   deb
> 

Well Deb, in my limited experience Ure is a somewhat slow grower, but
certainly faster than Comice here in zone 4a (of course it is a bit of a
miracle that the Comice is surving here). Perhaps your soil is missing
something important, have you tried a soil test? Some trees (and some
rootstocks) seem to be more demanding than others. If they are in near full
sun and getting reasonable water I would try Spring feeding them with
compost and a bit of general purpose fertilizer rather than moving them. Of
course if they are still small enough to move after a few years they are
not doing well.

Richard