Warren and Magness are both budding which is surprising to me. Magness bloomed on ohxf333 last year but the blooms didnt make it. This year the tiny magness is covered in blooms.
Shout out to Clark and Matt for convincing me to not throw the towel and not top work my Warren pear 3 years ago. Here I am at the 8 year mark and saw my 1st blooms on the tree today.
Congratulations @Chris_in_GA your about ready to dine on premium quality pears this year or next! Pears like Ayers & Warren are quality pears that can be grown in the south! Makes me wonder why dont more people grow them?
Makes me wonder why dont more people grow them?
I grafted in a few scions of Warren onto existing limbs this spring. Thinking that I can shorten the fruiting time.
Let us know if you get fruit sooner than the 8 year mark.
Mine is 3 years old on OxHF87 rootstock. It looks like I am in for a long wait.
I have a combo pear pear, Blake’s Pride and Warren, from DWN, probably on OHxF33now coming into second leaf. The Warren is almost twice as vigorous as the Blake’s Pride. But the BP has a few flower buds.
My most vigorous and productive pear is a 5-year-old Conference which is about 15’ tall 10’ feet wide. 2018 was a banner year in which it lived up to the literature by being being absolutely laden with large, elongated fruit, much like Bosc, but in clusters like grapefruit. Picked hard ripe in late Sept-Oct. and ripened in a cool room, the fruit was excellent, nearly as good as top tier Comice, Bosc, or Ubileen. I can see why Conference has been touted as a leading commercial pear in Europe. The vigorous growth and branch-spread from the fruit load makes it a great shade tree. Only my larger, older Comice on seedling can equal the production of the Conference, thus far.
I am located in coastal N. California, so you may need to adjust for your area. Good luck.
I just checked my third year from graft Warren pear. It is loaded top to bottom with blossoms.
I grafted it in 2017 to OHF87.
I am hoping that it will fruit this year.
How old is the rootstock?
1 year older. It was just a tiny bareroot rootstock.
That’s very impressive. I grafted Warren on a Blake’s Pride tree (on OHxF 97) in 2015.
Also, in 2015, I grafted Magness and Fondante de Moulins-Lille.
2018 Blake’s Pride set fruit and will this year, too.
2018, Fondante set fruit and will again this year.
I also accidentally grafted two varieties on that big Warren’s branches. Both of these new varieties (grafted 2017 and 2018) show flower buds this year.
In short, Warren takes much longer than any varieties I grafted and I gradted about 15 varieties of pears.
Your Warren, if true to label, is really impressive, in deed.
I obtained the scionwood from Raintree Nursery during their grafting/pruning classes. I also obtained several other Asian and European pear scionwood. All of them are blooming this year.
They are all still in pots waiting for their permanent homes after I sample their flavor and decide if I want to keep them. Maybe growing in pots makes them precocious?
I don’t know but OHxF 87 is quite dwarf. That probably helps, too.
All are in 5-7 gallon pots. All are around 4-6 feet tall.
Maybe closer to 7 feet.
I grafted Warren in 2012 and 2013. The scion for my 2013 graft came from the 2012 graft. The 2013 graft hasn’t grown nearly as well or as big as the 2012 graft, but it made one or two fruits last year (2018) and it has plenty of flower buds now. The 2012 graft is probably 4-5" in diameter now – both grafts were on volunteer calleries – and it has yet to flower.
In 2017 I grafted Warren on a limb of my Potomac tree, rootstock OH x F87. I have two blossoms this Spring. Very unexpected. I did train the branch horizontal… This appears to me to be key.
I’m planning on doing some of my trees with the branch bending. I am sure if will be better than what I am getting, fruit wise, now.
@Chris_in_GA do you have some fruitlets forming on Warren?