North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

> On a separate topic, I have found exactly one Asian pear. All the other 
> flowers and young fruit got zapped by the freeze.  On a more positive note, 
> all the plants seem to be in good shape.
>   


My two Asian pears were only planted last year, so of course they aren't 
yet producing fruit. But after the freeze, they looked about the worst 
of anything. Neither was too big - the New Century or Shinseiki 
especially, since it really struggled in our heat last summer - and I 
honestly wondered if they'd survive the freeze at all. But they're 
looking surprisingly good.

The Starking Hardy Giant (or Olympic or Korean Giant - every nursery 
seems to call the same Asian pear cultivars something different) started 
leafing out again, um... fairly quickly, and seems to be really taking 
off this year. It just seems to be much more vigorous in every way than 
the other. As I say, the New Century (or Shinseiki) really struggled 
last year, so it was pretty small and scrawny even before the freeze, 
though it had been sprouting out very strongly in March. Afterwards, it 
took a long time to green up again, but it seems to be doing fine now. 
It's not growing anywhere near as strongly as its neighbor, and it 
remains quite small, but it seems healthy enough. I'm just amazed at 
what these things can take from Mother Nature and still recover.

PS. I also planted a Hosui Asian pear this year. That's probably more 
than enough, if they all make it. (Note that these are all on dwarf 
rootstocks.)

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

--
I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in 
his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed 
before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale. - Marie Curie