To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] pear questions
Date: Sat, 5 Apr 2003 12:47:33 -0500 (GMT)
It might, or it might not. It depends on the cause of the hard spots. If
the cause is viral or nutritional (calcium deficiency, for instance), the
problem will likely show up in the scion cultivars as well. If is something
else, the scion variety may escape or suffer reduced injury.
Maybe not too helpful, but some things could be addressed to reduce their
possible influence, like calcium sprays. I guess it's worth a try to at
least topwork part of the tree and see what happens.
Anton
-------Original Message-------
From: Adrienne Bordo <beartown@acbm.net>
Sent: 04/02/03 11:24 PM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] pear questions
>
> I have three Harbin pear trees and would like to experiment with some top
working.
I also have an old pear tree, no idea of the name. Small, ripens late
August, early Sep, doesn't keep even when picked off the tree. Texture
isn't
the greatest but the flavour is very good. It is self fertile. This tree
has
been giving more & more fruit with hard spots the past few years.
If I graft scions from this tree to the Harbins, will this problem also
occur on the grafted limbs?
Adrienne
Zone 4, Southern Quebec near Lake Champlain.
I bought a bunch of Spencer apples from a u-pick place in Spencer Mass.
I was very surprised to hear the apple was actually developed
elsewhere. The trees looked healthy, and the fruit was cosmetically
perfect, except that some of them had a dark line running from pole to
pole, which looked like it might have been from damage to the young
fruit. The defect didn't affect the flesh. I have no idea how much
work went into that perfect fruit, though. Most of the other fruit
looked good, as well. (That orchard produced the best Macouns I've
ever had - incredible sugar levels, large, gorgeous, and with that
famous crunch.)
I thought the flavor of Spencer wasn't as rich as a golden delicious
can be, but was more tart, and was pleasant in an ordinary apple-y way.
This isn't an apple whose flavor you'd write home about, but it's one
you could eat a lot of. The texture was similar to a good golden
delicious, maybe a little softer and crunchier. I didn't keep them
long enough to notice their keeping quality, but they did make an
excellent pie, and a pleasant sauce. They were rather large.
Ginda Fisher
On Friday, April 4, 2003, at 11:08 AM, Michael Glassford wrote:
> I bought 1/2 bushel of "utility grade" Spencers from a local orchard,
> along
> with smaller quantities of many other kinds of apples for storage in my
> in-basement root cellar. Every single one of the Spencers (that I
> haven't
> eaten!) is in as good shape today as it was when I bought it. Better,
> in
> fact, since they have ripened a little and the flavor has gotten both
> stronger and sweeter. It has been my favorite eating apple all winter.
>
> Spencer has some of the flavor of Golden Delicious (one of its
> parents; the
> other is McIntosh), but isn't cloying like Golden Delicious sometimes
> is. If
> they're this good picked slightly green, I wonder how they taste picked
> ripe?
>
> Anyway, I'm wondering in particular: are there any notable problems
> growing
> Spencer (e.g. high susceptibility to scab, hard-to-train tree, etc.)?
> Anything else anyone can tell me would also be appreciated.
>
> Mike