At my Kansas location weather is nasty today at 28 degrees Fahrenheit currently but slightly colder last night. 25 degrees is the predicted low. It’s amazing how much more damage can occur with just s couple of degrees difference. Thought I would post pear bloom times for those who are not growing many pears yet so you know which ones you might want to grow based on your spring temperatures.
Improved Kieffer
Clark you have an excellent idea there. This is the blooming excerpt from my 2018 orchard records which is a big excel sheet for just about everything I grow. We are all in different climates so it’s not the date that is important but the general order. By the way that order might be different in a climate where higher chill varieties have no problem getting enough chilling hours before it’s warm enough for them to bloom. Somehow I missed the bud break data on my Ayers, but I can tell you that it was very, very late because we got stuck at just barely at 800 chilling hours this year. God bless.
Marcus
Oh, note where it says 2 August for Goldenboy. That should be February 8th.
Table Categories
Variety Bud Break (all varieties) First known open flower Main Bloom End Main Bloom
Absolutely Marcus a reference point in relation to pear bloom times is helpful. I added a date so people still have an idea because they can say hmm last year my kieffer bloomed 3 weeks later or earlier than Clark’s so now they have a point of reference. The people in the south likely already know but my first pears to leaf out are the ones grown in the south such as Ayers, Leona etc. . There are a few pears such as Miney that are completely leafed out and I’m very confused about. Those Canadian pears are all pears I need to know better because they are very useful for a variety of reasons. Harrow delight and Harrow sweet are late bloomers and you can see why on a year like this that’s a big deal to me. I document as much as I can including fruit harvest times because much of the data is unknown. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone could come to the site in the future and pick out a pear good for their location because they know in the south what pears worked for you? I know some people do that now. Someone in 5 years may find these bloom times valuable for pollination reasons, they may have dicey springs like I do and decide just to grow harrow sweet and harrow delight. Maybe they want a pear that ripens in July or August and produces a heavy crop so they grow the improved kieffer. We will see where the thread goes from here and we can always rename the title. Great data you gathered! You have an impressive pear collection!
On March 15 I escaped a devastating freeze by the hair of my chinny chin, chin. People 50 miles North and West were not so lucky. Being I’m 50 miles from the coast, 50 miles makes a lot of difference. The Islands just east of Savannah are Zone 9, while I’m in Zone 8b. Hardiness Zone 7a is only a hundred miles Northwest of me. While inland cities in Georgia like Macon and Augusta get cooler than I do in winter, they also get and stay way hotter than me in summer. It’s quite a bit hotter here in Statesboro in summer than it is in Savannah. And Savannah gets a lot more rain. God bless.
