Largest / Best tasting pear

Clark, I had thought you had the non-bronzed version, Bronzee means russet in French and your pear had no russet on it. I am pretty sure that Duchesse of @alan’s is the same as Duchesses d’Angouleme. The Bronzee version is not as common.

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Thanks Scott for the identification. I’m always on the look out for a better pear variety.That bronze variety looks promising and according to raintree it blooms with conference. Conference is another variety i have wanted for awhile now.

Located the information I was looking for about the largest best tasting pears and wanted to share it http://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/20721500/catalogs/pyrlargefruit.html

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I located turnbull giant wood this year but all my grafts of it failed on my wild callery trees. I will try it next time on ohxf333 or 87. The grafts took a couple of months to fail. A friend grafted a bunch of my Duchess this year and got 4 feet of growth out of many of them on ohxf333.

These Duchess D’ Angouleme are huge! They have at least a month left on the tree and they are already big and sweet. It’s only September 4th! They are normally picked late October to early November! Pick one off once in awhile to lighten the branch load and eat it like an Asian pear. I removed the majority of the flowers this year. They fruit early on callery rootstocks. I top worked these trees several years ago.





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Clark-

DO you think those would work in Wisconsin? I may be picking them during Thanksgiving?

I have some peaches i think won’t be ripe until october.

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They are zone 5-9 so I think they are worth a shot. They are very disease resistant as well. Almost no one grows them here but they are very good pears! We have picked them here in the snow before. I got the scions from a neighbor and Scott helped me identify them.

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Clark, Duchess, as I’m guessing you remember, was one of the recommended pears for the midwest by midwestern former Nafex fruit guru, Ed Fackler. That’s why I started growing it here in NY and I do enjoy their size and high quality as well as their relatively late ripening. I have a single tree that is being managed as an informal espalier on the edge of my veggie garden. In that capacity it is a fairly light bearer most years, but it does have a certain amount of pest resistance so I occasionally throw a graft of it on a nursery tree (that’s right, throw it on- just sharpen the point of the scion and shoot it like an arrow onto the tree and it takes!:wink:)

I bought my original bundle of trees from Starks, whose nursery is only expert on what performs in the midwest, It think.

I believe there are several late such Bartlett types of similar quality if not size (maybe Olpea should give it a shot for another record). Seems the later ones get more sugar- maybe the cool nights cut down on night time respiration and the energy saved goes to the fruit. .

If you had an early spring don’t be fooled and let the pears sit on the tree too long. In my experience once they get sweet they are ready to pick and Duchess is the type of pear that ripens best off the tree. It will sweeten somewhat in that process. Sorry if I’m underestimating your pear knowledge and giving advice you don’t need- at least it may help others.

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Thanks Alan we always appreciate your advice! I’m currently a member of NAFEX and have went over all the pear literature I can. Always looking to improve my pear growing. I don’t remember that specifically but likely have read that at some point. I’ve picked this one before and it’s not ripe. The seeds are still white though starting to turn yellow. The heat this year made them taste really good. I have ant problems already they ate holes in a pear or two to get at the sugar. I will hold them on the tree as long as I can. I will send Mark some scions this spring if he would like some. He’s been very generous to me and I’m looking for a way to repay the favor!

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No, I already offered. He is happy to focus on Harrow Sweet. Same season.

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Alan,
Those harrow sweet have a nice shape, fast growth, good disease resistance so far in my experience so I can see why he would chose those. I just started growing them this year but been very pleased with what I see. What do you think of harrow delight that he grows? What is the size of the harrows? I’ve heard slightly smaller than Bartlett. I remember you posting about them on the old GW and I was very interested in them. I’m going to see if I can get another one or two of the harrow pears in the next year or two.

That is a big pear. Does it get bigger than the Korean Giant?

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Bill,
The first one grown in this country was over 11" long. There are a few larger pears but this one literally is a branch breaker! According to Hortus Camdenensis | Pyrus communis ‘Duchesse d’Angoulême’ " ‘Fruit large, roundish-oblong, tapering towards the stalk, with an extremely uneven knobby surface, usually measuring about three inches and a half each way, or four inches deep, and three inches and a half in diameter, but sometimes much larger. Eye deeply sunk in an irregular hollow. Stalk an inch long, stout, deeply inserted in an irregular cavity. Skin dull yellow, copiously and irregularly spotted with broad russet patches. Flesh rich, melting, very juicy, and high-flavoured, with a most agreeable perfume. Ripe in October and November.’ [George Lindley – Orchard Guide p.372/1831].

Horticultural & Botanical History
‘The original tree of Duchesse d’Angoulême was a wilding growing in a garden near Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France. About 1808, M. Audusson, a nurseryman at Angers, appreciating the beauty and excellent quality of the pear, obtained the right to propagate it. In 1812 he began selling trees of the variety under the name of “Poire des Eparonnais.” In 1820, M. Audusson sent a basket of the fruit to the Duchesse d’Angoulême with a request for permission to name the pear in her honor, a request which was granted. At the exhibition of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society held in 1830, Samuel G. Perkins showed a specimen which measured eleven and three-tenths inches. It was the only one that grew on the tree, and was considered to be the first fruit of this variety produced in America. The American Pomological Society added Duchesse d’Angoulême to its catalog-list of fruits in 1862.’ [Pears of New York p.156].
Originated from Éparonnais, near Champigné in Anjou about 1812 [HP pl.LXVI/1878]. Also figured in Saint-Hilaire pl.56/1828.

History at Camden Park
Listed only in the 1857 catalogue in an Addendum as ‘Duchesse d’Augoulême’. This is amended in Macarthur’s hand to ‘Duchesse d’Angoulême’ in a copy of the catalogue used by him for this purpose [Pear no.56/1857]. ‘56. Very large, good bearer.’ [Diary B, MP A2951/1862]. Obtained from Veitch’s Nursery, probably the original Exeter premises."

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The duchesse dangouleme in my first picture I think went close to a pound and a half. The owner of the tree my scions came from reported 2 pounders. His tree gets broken down from pear weight every few years. My trees are larger now than the original. I put 4 of these trees on callery. Three trees I grafted over in either 2013 or 2014 and another the following year. Two trees were top worked on callery and are producing now which is typical with these pears. A friend with an orchard nearby propagated a larger number of them this year. It’s a pear that really should be as common as Bartlett or Anjou but it’s not. The farmers tree that I got my scions from produces hundreds of pounds a year. I will allow mine to produce a full tree next year.

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It can get decent size if you thin adequately but gets the sugar even when it is not- like Seckel that way. I agree that it is a bit smaller than Bartlett in general, but it sets heavier so unless you make sure to thin thoroughly it will be a lot smaller.

Harrow Delight is OK but not as sweet and melting. It’s a mid-summer pear which is probably why- the fruit gets quite big for such an early pear. It is a great performer for such an early one.

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I have a pear with a weight of 800 grams, although I have not eaten and I can not talk about his size, but the owner assures me it’s a very good taste.

this French variety is also very good and great:
http://www.fruitiers.net/fiche.php?NumFiche=1204

if someone wants to know more about giant varieties of pears I recommend talking to the owner of this web, it is a French pomologist that years ago studies and collects old varieties of apples and pears, several years ago sent him a friend of mine cuttings varieties exceed kilo weight
http://pomologie.com/

in the upper left part of it web we can see a picture of the size of some of the fruits compared to the head of his son

:+1: I used that website several years ago to select pears. There are many imported to the US years ago which nobody knows about but I found them described on that site. Fondant des Moulins-Lille, one of my favorites, I learned about from the pomologie site.

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Matrix,
Those pears do look large. Thank you for posting this information! The duchesse d’angouleme pear I mentioned earlier is an excellent quality French heritage pear. I would highly recommend it. A 1 kg French pear does not surprise me ( 1kg = 2.2 lbs) because that is similar in size to duchess though perhaps slightly larger. No doubt the French breed wonderful pears and I grow several of them. Duchess was actually a wild pear in France when it was discovered. I know it’s been brought up before but quantity is not always quality. Belle Angelvine Pear as an example aka Pound European Pear can weigh up to 3 pounds. They say it’s very good for its size. It was intended for cooking. It’s available from http://raintreenursery.com. These pears are large but they are not even half of the size of the largest pear which weighed in at over 6 pounds http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/heaviest-pear . The largest best tasting pear may be one of these but there is still a lot of unknown facts. Even brix cannot measure anymore than sugar content. An excellent pear has more going for it than sugar as we all know. True pear flavor is hard to describe in words but I grow one pear that has it and it’s a cut above all the others. It’s one of my smallest European pears of unknown parentage.

I must grow that 6 pound pear. Could you imagine a squirrel trying to figure out how to get that off the tree?

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@warmwxrules,
It’s on my list as well it’s called atago. It’s an Asian pear. Thinking of growing it on harbin or BET rootstock to try and get larger fruit. http://www.treesofantiquity.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=544 . Noticed some nurseries offer it on ohxf87 http://m.raintreenursery.com/?ref=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Datago%2Bpear%26fr%3Diphone%26.tsrc%3Dapple%26pcarrier%3D%26pmcc%3D000%26pmnc%3D00&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.raintreenursery.com%2FAtago_a.Pear_OHxF_87.html