To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Recommendations for Zone 4 pears for perry & wine
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:00:38 -0500
mIEKAL
Look at their oriental list too. Okolo is listed as pyrifolia, but it
was an OP seedling of ussuriensis. All the ussuriensis should be pretty
hardy, and you may find one in there mentioned as having astringent fruit.
Hung Li is one I think. That will let you grow pears that are fit to eat,
and have just one tree to make horrible fruit for blending. You can vary
your mix in pressing till you find the perfect ratio. The tannins should be
considerably higher in the newly pressed juice than what you'll want in the
finished product, because a lot will drop out as it ferments. I think
another reason you'll be happy with the ussuriensis crosses is that
supposedly the asian pears crop younger than the Europeans. I came across
some reason why they'd stopped using ussuriensis in crosses, but can't
remember what it is, so it must not have sounded very important to me.
Hardiness was not the problem. Oh, but be sure to check that the rootstock
you get is also hardy, and that is is compatible with asians. I don't have
to worry about these things down here, it's all calleryana rootstocks down
here. Have fun! Donna