Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
from full bloom to harvest in South Africa) and can succeed on a range of
soil types. However, like other important pear cultivars it flowers before most
apples so is subject to more risk of frost damage. It has a fairly high winter-
chilling requirement (
c
h), is sensitive to fire blight and produces fruits of
the best quality only under conditions of high temperature for the
.
months
preceding harvest. 'Bartlett' is self-sterile but can be self-fruitful through the
production of parthenocarpic fruits. A number of different clones, especially
with red skin colour, have been selected. Some have slightly lower chilling
requirements than the parent type.
'D'Anjou' pear was introduced into England in the nineteenth century by
Thomas Rivers and is the most important winter pear in the Pacific Northwest
of the USA, being grown mainly in Washington and Oregon. The fruits are
large and green. The trees are vigorous and consistent in cropping and re-
quire cross-pollination, usually by 'Bartlett' or 'Bosc'. It is more cold-tolerant
than 'Bartlett' but has a similar chilling requirement. It ripens
weeks
after 'Bartlett' in the USA and, relative to 'Bartlett', is even later in Italy
when it is harvested between
-
November. It is moder-
ately resistant to fire blight and has a very long storage life. One sport,
'Columbia Red Anjou', has bright red fruits with lower rates of respiration
and ethylene production than the standard 'Anjou', giving even longer storage
life.
'Beurre Hardy' was bred by M. Bonnet at Boulogne in about
October and
. It ripens
soon after 'Bartlett' in the Pacific Northwest and about
days after 'Bartlett'
in South Africa. It has fairly large fruits with a golden-brown skin speckled
with pink. It tends to form fruiting spurs instead of lateral long shoots along the
fruiting branches. Its wood unites well with that of quince and it is frequently
budded on quince rootstocks and then budded or grafted with other cultivars
less compatible with quince.
'Beurre Bosc', also grown in Oregon, is slightly later ripening than 'Beurre
Hardy'. It has large fruits and a yellow skin almost covered with a bronze
russet. It is more frost-hardy than 'Bartlett' but has a slightly greater chilling
requirement, requires a pollenizer and is very susceptible to fire blight, and to
stony pit virus.
'Doyenne du Comice' first fruited at Angers, France, in
. It has large,
light greenish-yellow fruits with probably the best flavour of all pears. It ripens
three-and-a-half to four-and-a-half weeks after 'Bartlett' and has good storage
quality but comes into bearing slowly and is an erratic cropper. It is grown
in Oregon and coastal California as well as being an important cultivar in
western Europe from southern England to Italy. It is reported to have a chilling
requirement of only about
hours.
'Conference' was introduced by Rivers in England in
. The fruits are
medium to large, long-pyriform in shape, with a smooth, unevenly russeted,
