Pear Tree Selection

[Long Cut]

I need help selecting a fire blight resistant pear tree varieties for Middle GA (Zone 7-8).

I’m shooting for September through November drop times and ideally, heavy bearing trees. Most importantly though, fire blight resistant.

I’m currently looking at Kieffer, Korean Giant Asian Pear, Orient and Seckel.

Aiming at 10-11 trees to start

 

[BoneCrusher20]

might suggest looking at Blue Hill Nursery....probably not going to get any for this spring, but plan ahead for orders for next fall when stock is up for grabs.

Kieffer is hard to beat from all i've read and guys on hear loving them...wish i could grow them up here.

 

[Long Cut]

might suggest looking at Blue Hill Nursery....probably not going to get any for this spring, but plan ahead for orders for next fall when stock is up for grabs.

Kieffer is hard to beat from all i've read and guys on hear loving them...wish i could grow them up here.

I have a local nursery with all of the above varieties in stock. Just trying to figure out what I want.

 

[Native Hunter]

Ayers and Moonglow are the most fireblight resistant pears I have ever seen. I've never seen the first hint of it on them. There are several other good ones that may show minor signs but not enough to affect anything. One of the worst ones for fireblight is Bartlett. In a bad year it will look like Hogan's Goat. I agree on checking with Blue Hill and would also check with the Wildlife Group if Ryan is sold out.

PS: The real Kieffer is a great pear that will show only minor FB, but there are a lot of Fake Kieffers out there, so be careful.

 

[Lucky_P]

Fireblight ate Korean Giant's lunch here in KY, both times I grew it. Keiffer, Orient, Pineapple, etc. are hard to beat... they'll take a FB hit and keep right on producing. There's a reason why almost all the OLD pear trees you see at old farmsteads across the South are Keiffer and its sand-pear hybrid cousins...

The folks at The Wildlife Group have a number of the late Dr. Alexander Nunn and Dr. David Griffith's southern pear varieties, collected mostly in east-central AL(Lee, Macon, Tallapoosa counties) ... they've stood the test of time and fireblight. Ledbetter, Galloway, Big Mama, Dixie Delight, Sen.Clark(kind of an 'improved' Orient), etc.
Haven't grown their Gilmer Christmas, but from their description of it, I've got a similar one that I found in Tallapoosa Co., AL about 10 years ago, had a huge crop still hanging on New Year's Day, and a bunch on the ground... will hold and drop round, russeted pears all winter long... I've seen it still holding some pears on March 1.

 

[THE LLC]

I got tired of trying to figure this all out so I just went around to old homesteads here in north Georgia, got scions for trees that have been growing for YEARS, and started my own!

 

[Mennoniteman]

I've shot more deer over keiffer pears than apples. Bucks especially semm attracted to pears.

 

[Native Hunter]

Unless we get a late freeze, it looks like I will see some pears from my Becton trees this year. This is supposed to be a good variety that drops into late November and FB resistant. We will see.