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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Pear tree size and crop

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  • From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Pear tree size and crop
  • Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2009 09:14:28 -0700

Given how many variations on the description I've seen for Keifer over the years, I've suspected the name has been applied to a number of European-Asian hybrids. Miekal's descriptions sure doesn't fit what a lot of people say about "Kiefer". Might be worthwhile to collect "Kiefer" from several sources if you want to try it.

I have a row of seedlings from 20th Century open pollinated and most of them are obvious hybrids with European pears. Several are similar enough that they could be confused if they weren't growing side by side.
I've been through the pear collection at the NCGR and there are a pretty good number of such types of hybrids.
And there are "Asians" that are hybrids. "Tarusa Crimson" is sold as a red Asian pear when the characteristics of it show it to be a European-Asian hybrid.
Keifer could stand some serious fruit exploring.
-Lon Rombough
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On Apr 4, 2009, at 8:55 AM, mIEKAL aND wrote:

I lost the Luscious that I planted to fireblight in their first year
of growth.

I have one Kiefer that I maintain in the way that Claude describes & I
agree its pretty easy to manage the size. I'm guessing it puts out
more than 10 bushels (tho it does tend to crop in a 2 cycle—more one
year, less the following year). Kiefer is a dessert pear, hard skin,
a bit bitter, sweet & fragrant on this inside with a bit of the
dessert pear grit... I do eat a lot of them out of hand but tend to
peel them first. I also put up 10 gallons of perry from the same tree
this year.

~mIEKAL



On Apr 4, 2009, at 9:31 AM, Claude Jolicoeur wrote:

Most hardy pear trees will grow big if you don't control them. But
they are
quite easily manageable. Once they have reached the maximum height you
want, you simply cut back the year's growth. Same principle for the
across
dimension. I maintain my trees at about 4m high by 4 across without
too
much difficulty.

There are very few hardy pears that will keep more than a month.
Northbrite
is early and will keep maybe 2 weeks, Luscious maybe 1 month. Patten
and
Flemish Beauty a little longer. The first pears will be edible
beginning of
September, and the last ones will have to be eaten, processed or be
lost by
end of October... Which leaves a fairly short season - hence the
warning
not to plant too many trees.

Claude

A 07:57 09.04.04 -0400, vous avez écrit :
A while back, Claude made some excellent suggestions for pears for
my zone.
I am now considering getting 2 trees, however space always being
tight in
my overcrowded yard I would like them to not be too big.

As I am looking for good keepers I was thinking Luscious. However
on the
internet I have found sites stating it can grow up to 15m(45ft) with a
10m(30ft) spread, and others stating that it grows to 5m(15ft) by
4m(12ft).

I have read that Northbrite is a small tree (but have not found any
dimensions), so I've been considering that.

Claude warned me about the size of crops, I can't visualize whether
2 trees
would give me far too may pears to keep through the winter for my
family.
If one tree would be more than enough I could go with grafting
different
varieties on to a smaller tree as Claude suggested (this is
hypothetical as
I have no grafting experience).

If anyone can clarify the sizes of the trees and the typical yield I
would
be grateful.

Caren
Quebec
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