Anyone growing their own perry pears?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jblaschke

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2010
Messages
75
Reaction score
14
Location
New Braunfels
I'm looking for scion wood to graft onto my pear trees in the back yard. Anyone growing their own perry pears? What are your experiences?
 
Nifty. What's the parentage? I've found a surprising amount of information about the various heirloom cultivars online, but alas, nothing about chill hours or fireblight resistance. Which are the two biggest concerns for me here in Texas zone 8b.
 
The parentage of my pears are a mix of table pears, asian pears, and canning pears. Here are a few hot weather/low chill varieties.

All these are fireblight-resistant varieties. Asian pears bloom earlier and will need each other, or possibly Turnbull, to cross-pollinate. Zones 5-8 (and 6-9 for Asians) .

"Harvest Queen" - Similar to Bartlett. Good productivity.
"Turnbull" - Large fruit with a crisp, juicy apple-like flavor. Long bloom period.
"Korean Giant" - Asian pear. Heavy producer of large late ripening green fruit.
"Shinko" - Asian pear. Tasty and productive. Needs thinning.
 
Thanks garnede, but I'm specifically looking for info on heirloom perry pears, not dessert or culinary pears. They arose as chance hybrids of European and wild pears, have high acidity and tannins, and are generally regarded as awful if you try to eat them. But those qualities that make them unpalatable in turn are reputed to give great depth of character to wines made from them: Perry Pear Varieties.

Unfortunately, it seems that almost all perry pears currently grown in the U.S. are found and propagated in the Pacific northwest. Nobody has any data for low-chill, fireblight-prone areas such as mine. :-/

Have you attempted perry with your pears? How did it turn out?
 
LOL... The easiest thing to do is to find an old homestead pear tree that still bears... They are usually French Perry pear seedlings.... In the old days - they got nursery root stock seed from the French perry mills... The top dies off of them... but the root was some sort of indestructible land race Pear.... They are usually incredibly bitter until late winter when the frost kills the fruit - they turn brown and mushy and magical! That's when I go get them and use them for Perry and Pear jelly...

That's where I get my perry pears from around here at least... PM me if you want me to send you a couple sticks (uuuhh... I mean "Scion wood") from my neighbor's "Perry" tree ;)

Thanks
 

Latest posts

Back
Top