Top 3 pears
- Thread starter buckdeer1
- Start date
When it comes to wildlife pears, Blue Hills offerings seem to rule the roost. Unfortunately, they sell out very fast and there probably aren't many, if any, that have producing trees from Ryan yet. I planted several in 2019 and had a few fruits this year for the first time.
Morse Hybrid seems to be a good one too. I planted 2 in 2018 but lost one and had another set back from a switchgrass burn. It also produced a small amount of fruit this year.
I've added Kieffer, Shinko, Olympic, Seckel, and Shenandoah the last couple years, but I'm a ways off from production on those.
Hopefully others chime in, it'd be nice to find another good late dropping pear source aside from BH.
Morse Hybrid seems to be a good one too. I planted 2 in 2018 but lost one and had another set back from a switchgrass burn. It also produced a small amount of fruit this year.
I've added Kieffer, Shinko, Olympic, Seckel, and Shenandoah the last couple years, but I'm a ways off from production on those.
Hopefully others chime in, it'd be nice to find another good late dropping pear source aside from BH.
Teeder
5 year old buck +
I have a couple young eating pears in the yard, but this wild one on the edge of the yard is crazy every year. This picture was from yesterday. It's always loaded and drops over a long period of time. Always deer under it. Really want to try grafting some in the next year or two.
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b116757
5 year old buck +
That’s a good one.
Mortenson
5 year old buck +
That's a good point about Blue Hill probably being the only game in town for wildlife pear trees. Wildlife Group has a good lineup but I'm not sure how far north they'll go. I know a lot of guys here have planted them, from IL and OH even.
I'd have to think kieffer and Oympic (Korean Giant) are two of the better options for guys looking outside those wildlife nurseries.
blueKYstream
5 year old buck +
I went heavier on pears than apples in my location, because they should be more disease resistant. I'm not sure how the crop yield will compare when they mature though. FWIW, I planted many more persimmons and chestnuts than pears or apples for the maintenance aspect. I'm not sure if those are options in your location though.
Back to your question, it might depend on your situation. Is the time they drop more important, self-pollinating, do you want some that taste best for your consumption, something you and deer or other wildlife can also eat, or just wildlife? I'm not sure if this was the best route, but I have a few different locations with a handful or more pears. The closest to my stand are the earlier varieties so I can bowhunt. At a couple of those spots, I grafted multiple varieties: Ayers, Moonglow, Arthur Ledbetter, and Orient. I figure if one gets hit by a frost, perhaps another might not. Also, if one variety happens to drop early/late, then I still have others dropping when I want. For mid-season, I imagine it's hard to beat Kiefer but there are a lot of good options mentioned too. I'm really interested to see how my Dr. Deer pear does compared to the others. The pears are much smaller but perhaps more numerous. This is the first year it's fruited for me. I haven't checked recently to see if it dropped though. My understand is that it won't until sometime in November and then drop steadily over an extended period of time.
Back to your question, it might depend on your situation. Is the time they drop more important, self-pollinating, do you want some that taste best for your consumption, something you and deer or other wildlife can also eat, or just wildlife? I'm not sure if this was the best route, but I have a few different locations with a handful or more pears. The closest to my stand are the earlier varieties so I can bowhunt. At a couple of those spots, I grafted multiple varieties: Ayers, Moonglow, Arthur Ledbetter, and Orient. I figure if one gets hit by a frost, perhaps another might not. Also, if one variety happens to drop early/late, then I still have others dropping when I want. For mid-season, I imagine it's hard to beat Kiefer but there are a lot of good options mentioned too. I'm really interested to see how my Dr. Deer pear does compared to the others. The pears are much smaller but perhaps more numerous. This is the first year it's fruited for me. I haven't checked recently to see if it dropped though. My understand is that it won't until sometime in November and then drop steadily over an extended period of time.
Blue Hill is sold out for this year.I do have a few pears ordered along with several more apples and crab apples from Turkey Creek and Whitetail Crab.WC did fix the shipping and have been great to work with.I think I am up to 30 new trees for the spring.I had hoped to have a well drilled to water all the trees in the orchard but my permit was denied due to flood plain restrictions.Oh well I can set up with tank and water 25 trees at a time with my dripper system.
blueKYstream
5 year old buck +
Check Walmart now (likely gone) or in the Spring when they get new shipments in. Chestnut Hill Outdoor publicizes how many they send to each store on their website. If you graft, check with me this offseason for scions. I might be able to get some on the Dr. Deer pear. I rode by my Dr. Deer pear yesterday. It still has some pears hanging. They aren't real big. I'd say they're about the size of a golf ball but my tree is still quite young (first year fruiting).
DJN
5 year old buck +
I bought a handful of Trophy, Doc’s Special, and Giovan from Hallman Farm in SC two years ago. Very happy with what I received, and have grown well. No fruit yet, but some are looking like they should/could produce next season.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
FWIW -
Our camp has 2 Kieffer pear trees and 1 Morse hybrid pear. All are doing well there. Kieffers are pretty well known. The Morse hybrid pear is a nicely-shaped tree with better crotch angles naturally than the Kieffer pear trees. The Morse pear produces a lot of round-shaped pears, and I haven't seen any disease problems on it. I'm happy with the Morse hybrid pear so far. That hybrid pear and Morse's "Nova Scotia crab" have been good trees for us. Other Morse trees ..... not so much.
Our camp has 2 Kieffer pear trees and 1 Morse hybrid pear. All are doing well there. Kieffers are pretty well known. The Morse hybrid pear is a nicely-shaped tree with better crotch angles naturally than the Kieffer pear trees. The Morse pear produces a lot of round-shaped pears, and I haven't seen any disease problems on it. I'm happy with the Morse hybrid pear so far. That hybrid pear and Morse's "Nova Scotia crab" have been good trees for us. Other Morse trees ..... not so much.
DJN
5 year old buck +
Oh wow. Yeah, I ordered (8) bare root trees and shipping was $46.89, shipped 4/21. Crazy that shipping doubled in 2 years.
I will say these were listed as 6-8’, and came *heavily* pruned to bring them down to around 6’, as well as very impressive roots. Definitely the most stout bare root trees I received out of 5 different companies I’ve ordered through.
I believe I have remedied the pear tree situation and selling out so fast for next year. I'm not saying they will be for sale for months, but they could be, or at least you shouldn't need to stay awake at night to get some. There is a large number of 2-year-old pears already growing.
Ryan
Teeder
5 year old buck +
This tree just finished up dropping this year, but last year still had a few on Dec 4.
These are last year.
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ng270
A good 3 year old buck
I have a couple of Ryan's Harvest pears, set in 2018 in Kentucky. I don't have time to prune/train/spray, and my clay is not the greatest for growing things, but both have been vigorous growers. They really reach for the sky. First fruit on both was in 2021 when each put on 10-12 pears. Both trees are in this pic.
9/05:
11/14, when the last of them had just hit the ground:
This past spring we had late frosts, to the point that I was surprised to have any fruit at all. Both Harvest pears still set a few pears, but just a handful. I didn't take pics but you can see the last hanger-on in this pic (the tree in line with the box blind), taken 11/04:
Harvest pear was advertised to drop mid Oct to early Nov. So far that's held out for my trees, but it's a very small data set.
So far they appear to drop around the same time as Shinko for me, and fruit size is similar (harvest is partially cut off in the pic).
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
Those are coming along great!
I know that everyone does their own thing and everyone’s goals are not the same…but. If you wanted to and had just a little extra time, spending a few minutes judiciously pruning off the low stuff and thinning just a little of the inside stuff would make those trees even stronger and help them produce more fruit before they get to tall and harder to manage.
Your pear trees are looking great and are doing really well in the clay. Pears like to grow up but sometimes get ahead of themselves and throw a heavy fruit set and the tall thinner branches snap under the weight. Cutting them back some now before they have a heavy fruit year would help them get stronger so they wouldn’t have as bad of potential issues down the road. I know I sure love to see mine growing tall reaching for the sky.
I went through exactly that with a half dozen of my nicer pears. Again just a little unsolicited advice I totally get the being busy and wanting the trees to make it on their own. It’s just so much easier to train a tree young than get a big investment of time in it and have something that is avoidable happen.
