Good Pear Year

[Native Hunter]

Except for the pear trees in my frost pocket, this is turning out to be a great year for pears. The pears with the very best crops this year are:

Keiffer (First picture below)
Moonglow (Second picture below)
Ayers (Third picture below)
Senator Clark (Fourth picture below)
Galloway (Forgot to get picture - will take one and post later)

Most all varieties look good this year, but I think the ones mentioned about are the best. I planted some Blue Hill pears this spring and they are growing like weeds. I'm anxious to see how they do over the next few years.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Keiffers are mostly a wildlife or cooking pear, are any of the others good for fresh eating?

 

[Native Hunter]

Keiffers are mostly a wildlife or cooking pear, are any of the others good for fresh eating?

There is not a better eating pear in the world than Ayers. Moonglow is my least favorite, but the deer eat it just fine. Senator Clark is similar to Kieffer in taste.

PS - Most people try to eat Kieffer too early. It is much better after being stored for a while.

 

[ng270]

My trees are young but it's a good pear year in my corner of Kentucky as well. Asian pears seem to do the best for me, and are definitely faster to bear. I have more Europeans than Asians planted but this year is the first that any of the Europeans have set fruit (and that's literally one pear) except for a couple of wildlife pears from Blue Hill which appear to be European. This is the second consecutive year for Shinko and Olympic to fruit.

I planted this Olympic in April 2016. In early 2018 a buck trashed the cage and girdled the tree completely. That spring one tiny sprout showed up above the graft; I cut the rootstock sprouts and kept it caged.


6/11/2022 pics; I haven't been back to take a more recent pic.


I have a couple of 2018 "Harvest" pears from Blue Hill. Not sure I've seen them on his list in recent years though? In any event, they've been great growers, and produced some fruit last year. They are taking a break this year, with only a few pears, but that could be due as much to frost timing as anything.

 

[Jack Terpack]

My Kieffer behind the house leafed out, blossomed and set fruit. Now it is losing all it's leaves but the small fruits are still hanging on the tree. This tree is very old. It might be on it's last legs.

 

[Native Hunter]

Here are those Galloway Pears I forgot to post a picture of:

And here is a recent pic of Senator Clark:

 

[coolbrze0]

Great looking pears Native!

 

[lakngolf]

Amazing Native. Always love seeing those tree limbs leaning over with pears.

 

[KSQ2]

Even in the drought, our largest kieffer here at the house is loaded and the pears actually look pretty good. Talk about a tough tree!

 

[Native Hunter]

Moonglow limbs are now touching the ground with heavy fruit load.

 

[Native Hunter]

How low can you go? Won't need my picking pole to pick these. But when they start ripening, the deer will pick them before me.

 

[wbpdeer]

Moonglow limbs are now touching the ground with heavy fruit load.

 

[wbpdeer]

My wife says no pears in her kitchen. She is retired too, and I honor what the cook says at my house. I say this to make the point, I only plant pears for what the deer want.

I am looking at drop times. What pear trees do any of you have that drops in Oct, Nov, or Dec. I am in Zone 7a, between Nashville, TN and Bowling Green, KY on I65. Portland, TN - I love my small town.

I will plant 4 to 6 pear trees in pockets this year. Drop time that puts a deer in front of a youth hunter with a firearm is what I and my son are looking to get into place.

Thanks for any useful pear cultivars.

wbpdeer

 

[Native Hunter]

My wife says no pears in her kitchen. She is retired too, and I honor what the cook says at my house. I say this to make the point, I only plant pears for what the deer want.

I am looking at drop times. What pear trees do any of you have that drops in Oct, Nov, or Dec. I am in Zone 7a, between Nashville, TN and Bowling Green, KY on I65. Portland, TN - I love my small town.

I will plant 4 to 6 pear trees in pockets this year. Drop time that puts a deer in front of a youth hunter with a firearm is what I and my son are looking to get into place.

Thanks for any useful pear cultivars.

wbpdeer

Wayne, it's hard to find a pear that will drop past early November in your area and also where I live. Right now I have some Blue Hill Pears planted that I believe will go later than anything I currently have, but they are too young to fruit. However, if you can get an order into Blue Hill for some of his pears, I would try to go ahead and get some. But, move fast when he opens the store, because he sells out very quickly. Keep in mind, however, that your drop times will be earlier than what he shows on his chart. My guess is that they could be around 5 weeks or so earlier.

I would recommend Kieffer, Becton and Olympic Giant starting out. These will get you into early November in most years - depending on the weather. Becton is supposed to go longer than Kieffer (maybe Mid November or later), but my Becton trees are just beginning to fruit well, so I can't say for sure yet. You can find dozens of pears that drop from September into early October. Just make sure that the cultivar is highly resistant to fireblight.

One final piece of advice - never plant a pear tree in a frost pocket...........

 

[wbpdeer]

Wayne, it's hard to find a pear that will drop past early November in your area and also where I live. Right now I have some Blue Hill Pears planted that I believe will go later than anything I currently have, but they are too young to fruit. However, if you can get an order into Blue Hill for some of his pears, I would try to go ahead and get some. But, move fast when he opens the store, because he sells out very quickly. Keep in mind, however, that your drop times will be earlier than what he shows on his chart. My guess is that they could be around 5 weeks or so earlier.

I would recommend Kieffer, Becton and Olympic Giant starting out. These will get you into early November in most years - depending on the weather. Becton is supposed to go longer than Kieffer (maybe Mid November or later), but my Becton trees are just beginning to fruit well, so I can't say for sure yet. You can find dozens of pears that drop from September into early October. Just make sure that the cultivar is highly resistant to fireblight.

One final piece of advice - never plant a pear tree in a frost pocket...........

Thanks for the reply. I will work on getting these cultivars in place. In Tennessee early November covers the Youth Hunt and Muzzleloader too. i have 12 pear trees now and only one got hit by a buck. It has managed to keep on trucking in spite of that event.

So, I guess I got some work to do picking out the best planting locations and getting some new pear genetics on the farm.

WBP

 

[KSQ2]

Kieffers are golden. The back pasture behind our house is a frost pocket entirely and the kieffer trees just keep on producing. The other pears don’t even come close when it comes to resiliency. The Massey on the other hand isn’t low at all around the barnyard, I’m very excited to see what the pears do over there in a few years.

 

[buckdeer1]

Asian pears are the best eating,but with late freezes and spring droughts my fruit set looks pretty low

 

[9x56MS]

I believe these are Keiffer pears. They don’t ripen and drop until late October early November. Has anyone ever seen Keiffer pears this big? I have had this tree for over 20 years and pears were never this big before. The picture is a bushel basket and 12 pears filled it up.

 

[Native Hunter]

View attachment 25611I believe these are Keiffer pears. They don’t ripen and drop until late October early November. Has anyone ever seen Keiffer pears this big? I have had this tree for over 20 years and pears were never this big before. The picture is a bushel basket and 12 pears filled it up.

Yep, Kieffer will get that big....