North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Kieran &/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>]



Thanks for the responses.  The problem is that the large tree in town makes fruit very similar in timing and appearance to my tree and 2 others like it.  However, the town tree makes fruit that are more slender, shinier, and earlier than the others.  I can mix them up in a bowl and pick out the town pears from mine.  Last year I was convinced they were different varieties.  My uncertainty arises from not being able to find a variety that looks just like the town tree, and wondering if it's merely differences in growing conditions.  Most of the town tree's pears are shaded part of the day by the tree itself, while mine have no shade at all.  I thought perhaps the russetting was affected by that, and the mottling might be something to do with scale.  Perhaps when 2-3 fruit hang from one spur, they will be more slender.  But some of my squatty fruit were in pairs from a single spur.  Mine and the others look just exactly like the Corvallis photo, the town fruit does not quite match.   

    I got some pears and started looking some more.  I took a peice of skin from one of each and held them in good light.  There is no doubt about it, the stone cells from my tree are larger than from the other tree.  So what superb quality pear comes in a bit before Ayers, and is just as good?  (or in my opinion, better)  I will definitely graft at least a few branches of the town tree in case the spread of progress does it in.  "Progress" in that part of town is due to the medical expansion that puts me very much in mind of a tumor: out of control growth that saps it's host's energy before killing it. 

    It's beginning to look like the 3rd mystery pear,  a large, rather bland large green thing, is Beierschmitt, much to my surprise.  Everything I read seems to say it's only slightly more blight resistant than Bartlett.  If Bartlett dies within a year or two of it's first bloom, how can Beierschmitt thrive and make huge old trees here???  And does that mean that I should expand my list of possiblities for varieties that may be here already and that I might be able to grow?  I know Chris Inhulsen has Beierschmitt down in S. GA.  This makes me curious about Beierschmitt's parentage, as it is said to be a Bartlett seedling.  When UT did their pear breeding program, the Bartlett crosses were practically all susc to blight.  "Morgan" was the only one releasedl  Their technique for making sure that all their releases were truly blight res is that they would graft a piece of Bartlett onto all the seedlings and then the next year inoculate it with blight.  The blight would eat up the Bartlett, and had to stop eating once it hit the seedling.     Donna Z6 TN

 

 

If you'd like to see some of the Corvallis info and photos, here is the one for Ayers:  http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/search.pl?accid=%20PI+541722

 

The home page:  http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=53-58-15-00

 

And the list of pear lists, which is quite fun (want early, want late, want red?):  http://www.ars.usda.gov/Main/docs.htm?docid=11372