North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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

I complained bitterly in 2009 about my Shinko fruit tasting like potatoes, 
and I found them little better in 2010.  I know the tree overcropped a bit, 
and the fruit were small but I did do some thinning and started picking the 
smaller ones way back in August.  The seeds were already black by then and 
some fruit had begun falling.  Mostly fed them to goats and chickens, and to 
a Thai woman who wasn't too impressed.  I kept tasting them myself every 
week or two in hopes they would improve.  Then when I was in western WA 
state the owner of Burnt Ridge nursery told me that Shinko was one of the 
best of the Orientals, that they are very late and they hadn't picked theirs 
yet.  Well, if they are 6 weeks behind us that's about on schedule... but I 
got to test out that theory too.  When we got back home Oct 18 there were 
still 2 Shinkos hanging, and they actually had a little bit of sugar in 
them.  Not much sugar, but at least it was detectable.  Still no FLAVOR, but 
some sugar.  By contrast the Korean Giant, with it's 3 large fruit that 
survived the major fireblight pruning, offered something pretty edible.  Not 
my favorite, but at least I felt I could offer them to people without them 
looking at me like I was crazy to consider them food.
   Can you all think of any reason why I should give Shinko any more time? 
Should I thin it severely early on?  It does crop well and young, but as 
time goes on I'll have other varieties dropping fruit for goats and 
chickens.  Like all my older pear trees they are grafted on volunteer 
seedlings.  One of the two comes up right with the larger Pineapple tree so 
I think they share the same roots.  I can do a neat job with the bowsaw and 
be done with it.  Maybe if  I topgraft the other to a slow fruiting European 
style pear the Shinko will serve as an interstem to induce early fruiting? 
What do you think?
   Speaking of slow fruiting though, have you all really noticed how little 
has been said about the Potomac pear?  I realize it's only been 7 years 
since it was released, but what I read is quotes from the original press 
release over and over, no additional comments from the nurseries carrying 
them.  Maybe they have pruned off too many scions for their trees to start 
fruiting, but you'd think they would have tried grafting a branch somewhere 
just to get some fruit quick.  I was interested when it first came out, but 
kept waiting for people to talk about how their trees were doing, and hardly 
anyone has.  It's kind of like the Badgersett hazels, they advertise but no 
one is talking about the plants they bought.  I got some just in time for 
the long drought beginning in 2005, so I can't complain too much, but they 
didn't really start to grow till the wet summer of '09.  Meanwhile native 
seedlings have sprung up and are as big as the biggest of the Badgersetts 
without me lifting a finger to help them.  Actually, I have some seedlings 
in pots (2009 Euro x beaked) that struggled through this summer's drought 
but are nearly as big as the smallest of my Badersett seedlings in the 
ground from their 2004 seed crop.  It's not like there's no helpful fungus 
on hand, as there are thriving native hazels pretty close.     Donna