I think Ethan used to grow this one and if I remember he didn’t seem to think it was all that remarkable. It has been awhile since I have spoken to him though and I may well be remembering this wrong. IE beremembering the wrong variety. A three pound pear huh? What a limb breaker.
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Marcus,
I will let you know how it does. I’m grafting another you’ve posted about on another website called Tenn… I will let you know how it does in Kansas. Im grafting a fairly large number of other pears this year.
Wildscaper,
It sounds like it would look like a bunch of cantaloupe hanging from a tree! 3 pounds is a very large pear. Duchess pears get big though it’s hard for me to imagine a larger pear. We will see what it does it here.
hopefully Tenn will be more productive up there than here.
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Marcus,
I know Tenn is not a large pear so this might not be the best place to discuss it. The scion wood of Tenn I received from the USDA looks excellent. The USDA description says " Excellent quality, medium sized dessert pear. Reportedly came out of the Tennessee breeding program with Ayres. Apparently there is more than one cultvar propagated as Tenn in the South. This is the good one. It has a slightly pyriform shape, fairly uniform, and has a nice red blush on one side. About 350 - 400 chill hours (commonly sets two crops in Houston). Tree is very large and spreading on calleryana." - https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail.aspx?accid=%20PI+617601
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It colored up much like it’s parent Ayers although it seems to be more rounded from looking at the picture. Thanks to a generous scion donor I added Tenn to my orchard. Looking forward to seeing how it compares to my Ayers. Bill
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That pear hanging on a tree would be an awesome site to see. Good tasting or not it would be worth keeping just to look at. Wonder if the limbs could hold up without breaking. Korean Giant weighing about one pound looks huge but three pounds would be an impressive site to see. Bill
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Bill,
If you like very large pears the atago http://www.treesofantiquity.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=544 I’ve mentioned before is the way to go http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/heaviest-pear. It holds the heaviest pear record even now at 6 lb 8 oz. That’s a huge pear! I grow duchess pears that are 11/2 pounds regularly but that’s my largest pear. My scions came from a tree that produces 2 pound pears at least every year or two as shown above in a previous post.
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My hunch is that it likely is possible for a pear to be too bid. Just as iti bitty pears are a pain to pear and process, I imagine that a six pound pears would be unwieldy to handle and process. I bet one would have to provide extra support for each and every pear if they are that heavy. It would be a sight to behold for sure. the write-up mentioned fire blight resistance but said nothing about chilling requirements.
Marcus
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Larger pears might not be practical to grow but to see the look in my grands eyes would make it worthwhile.
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I don’t think that I would want an entire tree of these larger pears but a few scions of these carefully place would be interesting.
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I agree the pears would be way to big. Duchess starts breaking branches due to the 1 1/2 pound pears if your not careful.
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I like Kieffer pears for the fact they eat more like an apple when they are getting ripe. Nice chunks when you bite into them. They seem less gritty when you eat them that way. They can get as big as your hand. I had a standard size tree long ago. They made great pear butter. I am ordering one Keiffer pear tree this year.
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I like my Kieffer also. We all have different taste but it seems to me to be under appreciated. Orient is another similar tasting pear. Both are heavy producers with very few disease issues. Bill
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There is nothing wrong with kieffer but there is something wrong with someone planning to bite into a drippin’ honey pear and having a mouthful of kieffer. Those pears are night and day different.
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Hi Clarkinks. Would you happen to know where I can obtain a few Turnbull scions to try this year?
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The only place I know to get them is from singing tree and they are mail order only. I had 100% fails on them grafted to callery.
Singing Tree Acres (apple, pear, plum, peach, apricot, mulberry, nuts) – Richard Fahey, Rd 2, Oxford, NY 13830. US mail only. Scionwood of many varieties of apples plus other fruit. Send SASE for scionwood list
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Thank you for your quick response. Maybe I’ll try next year. I’m going to attempt grafting for the first time this year with scions from a 120 year old pear which grew at my grandparents old house. The tree is 3 stories tall and I think it’s a Duchess d’Angouleme.
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Hope you have good luck with that graft, sounds like a worthy project!
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What a fantastic tree to graft. If you get a chance document the process because many of us are interested in those beautiful old pears. Would love to see you preserve it.
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