European pears in the Willamette Valley
Easy for some (especially rural growers), but lots of frustrations reported by growers in our area as well.
Cliff notes: many growers report European pears are easy to grow. But quite a few growers are also struggling with rust, scab, overgrown trees, and occasionally coddling moths.
Urban areas seem most impacted by pear diseases. Growing disease resistant varieties can help - somewhat - but there isn’t a good selection of varieties resistant to both common diseases in our area (scab & rust).
European pears are easier to grow pome fruits than apples, but not as easy to grow as Asian pears.
Quick selections for flavor plus at some disease resistance: Orcas, Rescue, Suij, Bosc, and possibly Conference. If you live in an urban area, be especially wary of the two rust issues that can pop up - none of the above varieties have reported resistance to rusts.
Rootstock selections vary based on the supplier. OHFx87 has a solid reputation as good pear rootstock. OHFx513 has very limited info out there. If you have a choice, go with the one with the more solid reputation to better ensure long-term success. Initially, this may cost you a tad more.
My garden has only 1 mature European pear tree. It is a combo tree, and I’ve long ago lost the tag. I’m pretty sure two varieties are Rescue and Orcas, and there is another variety that has struggled to grow that is finally blooming this year. It could be either Highland or Harrow Delight.
The combo pear has produced ok, but considering it was one of the first trees I put on my property, it has taken some time to come into bearing. Partly because I was seriously struggling with blackberries around this tree for the first few years, and I hadn’t yet ramped up my mulching game. It is also in a fairly dry location. This year, it is flowering copiously, and I’m hopeful that this is the year I get a really big crop from it.
Also blooming on my property for the first time is Orcas, a tree I picked up from the late, great Home Orchard Society 5 or 6 years ago. Several more trees I picked up at that time, not yet blooming, are: Summer Blood Birne, White Doyenne, Worden Seckel, and Comice. These are all selections I made off of reports of flavor, though I have yet to taste them myself. And I have not spent time thinking about disease resistance in my orchard until more recently.
Last year, I planted a Grand Champion that I picked up from the Home Orchard Education Center as a custom graft. This is a selection I made after tasting it from their CSA. I found the flavor to be excellent. After inquiring about disease resistance, the director informed me it is one of the best for home gardens, and is a “no brainer”. Note: the HOEC orchard will have their annual sale in May, and this variety as well as many others may be available for purchase.
As part of the CSA participation in 2021, I was able to taste many of the varieties that they grow. I was very pleased with the flavor of Orcas. I also tasted Rescue, which was good but not as good as Orcas.
Something stumped me about a lot of the other tastings. Many of the pears were ripe and ready to eat, but they were also very astringent. Too astringent to eat IMO. I asked the director about this and she said that she also finds many of the pears to be astringent, but thinks it is something that she and I happen to be more sensitive too, because other people don’t mention it.
I do wonder if the astringency was something that could be improved with additional cold storage or more time on the tree. Or maybe these varieties are best for cooking or drying, which tends to remove astringency in other fruits.
The cultivars that struck me as astringent: Suij, Anniversea, Colette, Worden Seckel. (uh-oh I planted Worden Seckel)
The variety Helmerschus never fully ripened for me.
I did not care for flavor: Dr. Jules Guyot and Starkling Delicious.
These cultivars tasted good: Buerre Superfinn, Grand Champion, Princess, Jublianna, Orcas, Rescue, Bosc.
This year, I’ve taken on a volunteer position at the orchard, which will give me access to even more fruit and more tastings. I will report back.
Summer pears and Winter pears
Notes from an article written by Orin Martin, who specializes in growing fruits near Santa Cruz.
Alice Waters says that we should think of summer versus winter pears as being as different from each other as winter squash and summer squash.
Summer pears do most of their ripening on the tree, and are available July - September. They may or may not require a cold period of 3-5 days to help convert starch to sugar. They do not store long, and require eating or processing pretty quick. Most of the pears that are planted in our region by home gardeners are summer pears.
Bartletts, however, can be treated as either winter or summer pears.
Winter pears, require 3-4 weeks in cold storage after picking. These need to fully mature, but must not ripen on the tree or they turn to mush. Knowing when to pick a mature winter pear is tricky, and I recommend reading the above article by Orin as it is too much to sum up here. Also, keeping notes about when you harvest will help your future self. The most commonly planted winter pear in our region is Bosc.
Note that Orin says Orcas & Rescue are winter pears, but they ripen up as summer pears for me.
Pollination requirements aren’t quite as tricky as they are with apples. European pears do require another tree blooming at a similar time for pollinating. Raintree has an excellent chart that shows when most of the commonly available trees bloom for easy reference.
Expert recommendations:
I took a class at the Home Orchard Education Center a few years ago and asked the director what her favorite varieties are for pest and disease resistance. Off the top of her head, she said: Rescue, Orcas and Worden Seckel as summer pears. For winter pears she offers Suij and Bosc as top picks.
OSU has a publication discussing favorite pears. For scab resistance: Conference, Orcas, Rescue, Harrow Delight. There is no discussion of rust resistant varieties.
OSU also has a video class on growing fruits in our region, and recommends the following varieties for home growers: Conference, Comice, Rescue, Bartlett, Flemish Beauty, Winter Nelis. Some of these recommendations surprise me. Bartlett and Flemish Beauty are both susceptible to scab. And Winter Nelis is listed as very susceptible to rust, according to this publication.
According to WSU in this publication, Orcas and Rescue were specifically selected because of their resistance to scab.
Accounts from other Willamette Valley pear growers: once again, I turned to facebook to ask several gardening groups - all the way up and down the valley - about their experiences growing European pears. This information is too much to list here, but you can access the notes here if you’d like to read them. I’ve got a good consensus on the issues that are coming up in our region after reviewing notes of over 70 gardeners and summarize/discuss the issues below.
Rust is the most commonly reported issue, with 13/73 or 18% of gardeners reporting this problem. Note that many of the reports are from urban areas, especially Portland. Rust is a problem in that it seriously impacts the health of the tree, and unlike scab (the other major issue, which I discuss below), can also completely ruin fruit.
I learned from this article that there are actually two kinds of rust in our area. One who’s alternate host is Juniper, the other who’s alternate host is Incense Cedars. Both of which are commonly planted in urban areas. Incense Cedar also naturally occurs toward the southern part of the valley.
The article informs me that the *only* surefire way to get rid of rust on pear trees is making sure that there are none of these alternate hosts within 1,000 feet. That is not something that is accomplished easily in an urban environment.
(Oops, I planted several incense cedars when I found seedlings growing around mature trees. I’ll be removing them to make sure I don’t give myself this problem in the future. Otherwise, I can reasonably expect both Junipers and Incense Cedars are not planted near my property. )
As for resistant varieties, the above article says that nurseries don’t list disease resistance for this problem. I did find notes on Raintree about rust resistance, but found it a little confusing. They list rust resistance as “Cedar Trellis Rust” which sounds like just one disease they are referring to. But the above referenced article refers to “Trellis” rust as the disease stemming from junipers, and “Cedar” rust as the disease stemming from exposure to Incense Cedars. I’m not sure exactly what they mean, and you may want to clarify with them that they are referring to both kinds of rust if you wish to purchase from this nursery.
Harrow Delight is listed as resistant to both scab and rust, but only one grower reported on this variety and in their opinion the flavor is bad. This grower may have simply not given the tree enough time - some trees need to mature to produce good-tasting fruit.
Red Clapps, Gem, and Warren are listed as rust-resistant. Red Clapps is listed as very susceptible to scab on Orange Pippin. Gem is listed as scab susceptible on Cummins nursery. There is no literature on Warren for scab resistance.
If you live in an urban area or are unsure of Incense Cedar or Junipers planted nearby, I don’t know that there are any good variety recommendations for you, unless you don’t mind dealing with scab infections.
Scab is the next most commonly reported problem, 10/73 or 14% of growers having had this experience in our area. The good news is that scab tends to be only a problem on the peel, with the inside of the pear being salvageable. However, if the infection is severe on the fruit, it can cause cracking and ruin the fruit altogether.
The other good news in regard to scab is that there are cultural and chemical controls for this problem and resistant cultivars.
According to this literature, scab infection typically begins during extremely rainy periods in the spring. I’m not entirely sure how this plant pathogen spreads. It seems to only infect pears. Which *could* mean that, if there are no other pears nearby, there may be no route for the disease to infect your orchard.
But once infection sets in, the leaves drop to the ground. If the leaves don’t decompose over the winter, they are an infection source for the following year and the problem will recur.
Orin Martin reports that scab on pears is not as big an issue as it is with apples. The fruit is susceptible in moderate temps of 50-70, when leaves are wet over 7 continual hours during the daylight (the spores need daylight to germinate). He chooses to only spray fungicide during really bad years, as he’s found that a failure to do so could result in disaster in the following years because the disease tends to build up.
The PNW Disease handbook lists several cultural controls that can help prevent the disease.
-Applying nitrogen to help the leaves decompose. (I wonder if allowing chickens to roam the orchard would offer the same impact with their droppings).
-Shredding leaves helps speed decomposition. (Again, would chickens scratching the surface help?).
-Prune out infected twigs. See the article for photos of infected twigs.
-Applying dolomitic lime at leaf fall increases pH reduces inoculum. (This begs the question - is there a better pH at which to grow scab susceptible cultivars? Should soil be tested prior to even considering a scab-prone cultivar?)
-Don’t use overhead irrigation.
I’m a little surprised that pruning isn’t mentioned here - I would think that opening up the tree to aid faster drying would offer some benefit as a cultural control.
An article written by OSU on scab is available here should you wish for more reading.
Coddling moth is an occasional issue as well, reported by 6/73 gardeners or 8%.
The good news about coddling moth is that they don’t usually ruin the entire fruit. You can simply cut around the damage. The bad news is that they are somewhat difficult to control.
Coddling moths, once they get into your orchard, are a bit difficult to get rid of. They spend the winter under loose bark in the tree itself, or in the soil at the base of the tree.
Organza bags or other “bagging techniques” are the easiest ways to keep coddling moths out of your pears. Organza bags cinch tight and are easily applied and reusable. Once your pear harvest becomes big, this task might be a bit cumbersome. You could simply choose to bag a few of them to ensure that you get some moth-free fruits.
Another barrier method to keeping them out is a product called Surround. It is a kaolin clay product, that requires 3 sprays after the heaviest rains, using a special sprayer. It does leave a white coating on your trees and fruit, but easily washes off. I haven’t yet had enough fruit to warrant investing in the sprayer and a bag of the stuff, which isn’t terribly cheap.
Other cultural controls:
Allow poultry to free range through the orchard to feast on the moth pupa.
The PNW Disease Handbook reports that wrapping tree trunks with cardboard and periodically replacing them will help trap the moths. Make sure to destroy coddling moth pupa found.
According to HOEC, thinning fruits to only one fruit per cluster will help, as a common point of entry is where two fruits are touching. Look to this blog post as well about making homemade traps for them.
Also according to HOEC, encouraging woodpeckers, who hunt and destroy coddling moths are to your benefit. The woodpeckers on my property absolutely love suet, so maybe consider adding a block to your orchard to encourage them to stick around. Suet does go bad rather quickly in the summer though, so maybe use only a little bit at a time. Consider cutting a block into small chunks and freezing the ones you aren’t using for later.
There is possibly resistance with firmer-skinned varieties - which will be your winter pears.
Making sure your tree doesn’t get so big and out of reach will help, so that you can reach the fruit for treatment should you need to.
Tree size is the next most commonly reported problem in our area. Some trees get so big that the grower cannot reach the fruit easily for picking or insect control.
Learning to prune will help with this issue. There are some places that offer workshops in person to show you how to do this, such as the Home Orchard Education Center in Oregon City. There are also youtube videos, and I would recommend watching what Orin Martin has to say on the topic.
From what I understand, there are no truly dwarfing rootstocks for pears. Except that some pear varieties grow more as a bush than as a tree, such as Seckel.
OHxF87 is what Raintree most often uses, and my local Home Orchard Education Center uses — whom I’ve purchased many trees from. Another major supplier in our area uses OHxF 513. Both dwarf to the same size. One notable difference that I can see is that OHxF 87 has a solid reputation as excellent rootstock, whereas there is very little information about OHxF x 513. The nursery may have selected the 513 over the 87 series because the 87 is patented, and can only be legally grown by certain suppliers, which may increase the expense of growing. If anyone out there can shed light on this issue, please let me know so that I can update this site.
Variety discussions from home growers: many home growers do not recall the variety of tree that they’ve planted. Often, but not always, these growers are bringing up discussions about their trees mid-late August, which coincides with when Bartletts are ripe.
Bartlett is the most commonly planted tree in our region. I love love love the flavor of this fruit, especially for drying. They’re like candy when dried. The tree is both scab and rust prone, but many growers report no issues at all. One grower reports astringency if you don’t let them mellow out in cold storage first.
Bosc is the next most commonly planted variety. There are no reports of problems in these trees, though, note that this publication shows pictures of scab on Bosc in Oregon. One grower in my research noted that their Bartlett gets rust, but the Bosc does not - possible resistance?
Seckel is the next most commonly planted variety in our region. Many growers rave about the flavor of this one. One grower noted a rust infection. Seckel are noted to take a very long time to get to fruiting. In my garden, I selected Worden Seckel, which is noted to be more disease resistant than the original Seckel, but what disease I have no idea — there is very little literature on this cultivar. Also of note is that my subsequent tastings out of the HOEC orchard (my tree is too young to fruit) were extremely astringent. Yes, they were ripe and sweet and picked correctly. We will see if I get the same result in my home garden.
Ubileen is planted by a handful of gardeners in our area with some good results. One grower did report that it doesn’t do well dry-farmed. It is noted as indistinguishable from Bartlett, except that it ripens much earlier, which could be awesome for those who want an abundance of summer pears. However, the fruits are enormous, which means you’ll need to thin carefully in order to avoid branch breakage. And if you’re using Organza or other bags for coddling moth control, you’ll want to make sure to select a very large size of bags.
D’Anjou is planted by a couple of gardeners in our area. One says they get bad coddling moth damage. The other gardener isn’t clear on what variety they have, but thinks this is the correct variety. They seem to be disease/insect free.
Rescue is planted by a few growers in our area, with good result.
Orcas is planted by only a couple of people, one with a tree too young to fruit. The other says the pears rot in the middle. This variety ripens up fine for me, and for the HOEC orchard and is highly regarded by experts in our area.
Comice is grown by just a few growers. One grower reports that they have Bosc and Comice. While Bosc fruits prolifically, Comice doesn’t set fruit at all. Another grower gave up on Comice and is grafting over it with Bartlett. They say Comice is too tricky and requires perfect storage. And that Comice does not can well.
Red Bartlett - two growers reported. One said it fruits fine, but requires a little cold storage in order to mellow it’s astringency. The other one said the fruits don’t ever mature.
Back to my garden, I’m pondering planting Bosc for its reliable winter keeping ability. But I’m weary of fighting off scab and coddling moths. I am super curious about the variety Conference, which may fill that same niche, but is reported to have some resistance to scab.
What are you curious about? What works/doesn’t work in your garden?
Donations: the information that is provided here is free for gardeners of all financial means. If you’d like to financially support this site, you can make a one-time donation or monthly subscriptions on this link. All proceeds will fund more garden projects to share here with you, dear readers, thank you!