North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Anton Callaway <marillen@earthlink.net>]

I'll have to partially agree with Chris... Spalding does not have much 
flavor.  However, it is far superior to some of the old Southern pears like 
Kieffer and Orient.  It is also very resistant to blight in much of the 
Southeast, although Ethan reports it gets quite infected in the Houston area. 
 Spalding is also highly productive and bears annually with minimal pruning.  
Finally, it often develops beautiful fall color, unlike many pear cultivars, 
making it a nice landscape tree.

In my opinion, Spalding is mostly suited for culinary uses (& perhaps 
fermentation when blended with flavorful apples or other juices- anyone tried 
using Spalding this way?).  For fresh eating, Warren, Potomac, Magness & 
Ayres are the best buttery-fleshed pears that I've grown in the Southeast, 
Megietsu (sp?) is a good Asian, but is blight susceptible & Green Jade is an 
excellent intermediate-texture pear.

Anton
Zone 8 (rain, at last!)

-----Original Message-----
>From: Donna &/or Kieran <holycow@cookeville.com>
>Sent: Jun 2, 2007 11:13 AM
>To: chex.rice@gmail.com, North American Fruit Explorers 
><nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
>Subject: Re: [NAFEX] trials, serviceberry and pear
>
>Chex,  I was intrigued to see just how many species there are of
>Amelanchiar, and some differences in flavor.  It would be nice to compare
>flavor and production of various cultivars, but for many of us disease
>resistance is the #1 limiting factor.  Also, I have to wonder about soils,
>mineral requirements, etc.  My juneberries wouldn't grow till I added boron,
>which was the limiting factor in apple trees here too.
>    What we probably need is someone growing all the selections and 
>cultivars together for comparison, combined with reports from others who are 
>growing them under different conditions.  For example: I really have enjoyed 
>watching Chris Inhulsen's huge trial of southern pear varieties in Montezuma 
>GA, and hearing his acerbic comments regarding many of the cultivars.  He's 
>saved me LOTS of trouble by trialing what turned out to be inferior 
>varieties, and what he recommends as good, I can figure really is good.  (He 
>really wanted me to try Bierschmidtt and 'Hartman's Special', but there are 
>some others he thinks are worth having.  I myself am crazy about '20th 
>Century' though it is not precocious and gets a fair bit of blight.)  Lucky 
>was sent scions of Spaulding, and as he sent me his leftovers, I now have a 
>small tree of Spaulding.  The ONLY reference I can find to Spaulding is 
>Raintree Nursery, but I don't really trust nursery hype.  Chris has informed 
>me that Spaulding is "tasteless and yucky".  Lucky tells me that 'Korean 
>Giant' is tasteless and huge, but Ted Danieki says it's good.  So I'm going 
>to save room and hedge my bets not by throwing Spaulding away, but by 
>planting it and Bierschmidtt close together.  If I like both, I'll leave 
>both to intertwine.  If I dislike Spaulding, I can whack it (and probably 
>regraft it).
>    Donna
>
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