{"id":5949,"date":"2016-01-06T12:00:02","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T17:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=5949"},"modified":"2015-11-18T10:14:55","modified_gmt":"2015-11-18T15:14:55","slug":"asian-pears-becoming-very-popular","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2016\/01\/06\/asian-pears-becoming-very-popular\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian Pears Becoming Very Popular"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"'Korean<\/a>

‘Korean Giant’ Asian pear<\/p><\/div>\n

Whether home-grown or store bought, Asian pear (Pyrus pyrifolia<\/em>) fruits\u00a0ripen sweet and tasty on the tree\u00a0(USDA hardiness zones 4-9). There are over 100 varieties available worldwide, many with difficult to pronounce.<\/p>\n

Investigate variety cold hardiness and winter chilling rating as some\u00a0cultivars are\u00a0hardier than others. Southern varieties require only 300- 600 hours of winter chilling temperatures (under 45\u00b0F) to set a\u00a0crop annually. They ripen on the tree (ready to eat) compared to European pear varieties that are first harvested and ripened off the tree.<\/p>\n

Asian pears trees bear fruits in 2-3 years compared to European pears in 4-5 years. Plant bare root trees either in late winter or in early fall. You will need to plant two or more different varieties to insure good cross pollination. Trees should be set 12-15 feet apart in a well-drained, moderately acidic soil; keep the graft union 2-4 inches above ground.<\/p>\n

Trees should be pruned during late winter. Asian pears exhibit different growth habits than European pears. Asian pears are smaller trees (usually 8 feet to 12 feet tall). Some branches\u00a0develop very narrow crotch angles, which may break under a heavy crop load.<\/p>\n

Trees should be trained to a modified leader system. At planting, cut back the central leader\u00a0to 36-42 inches above the ground to encourage lateral shoots. These shoots\u00a0become the main scaffold branches. Remove any broken, low branches\u00a0and root suckers at any time.<\/p>\n

Do not fertilize newly planted trees in year one. Going forward, fertilize trees annually with granular 10-10-10 or equivalent. Keep trees mulched around the base.\u00a0Loosely wrap\u00a0chicken wire or\u00a0mesh\u00a0around\u00a0trunk of newly planted fruit trees to protect the tender bark from rabbits and\u00a0field mice (voles). The wire\u00a0should be removed after two years.<\/p>\n

Asian and European pears have their share of disease and pest problems. Consult fruit spray guides published by\u00a0your state land grant\u00a0university. Some Asian pears varieties are more disease resistant than others. Unfortunately,\u00a0both Asian and European pears\u00a0are susceptible to fireblight.<\/p>\n

Depending on variety and growing region, Asian pears are ready for picking from mid-July to early-October. Fruits are thin skinned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whether home-grown or store bought, Asian pear (Pyrus pyrifolia) fruits\u00a0ripen sweet and tasty on the tree\u00a0(USDA hardiness zones 4-9). There are over 100 varieties available worldwide, many with difficult to pronounce. Investigate variety cold hardiness and winter chilling rating as some\u00a0cultivars are\u00a0hardier than others. Southern varieties require only 300- 600 hours of winter chilling temperatures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,1108,747,650,665,599,917,774,816,551,826,1030,843,828,1136,951,601,933,723,630,646,1189,819,455],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5949"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5949"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8357,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5949\/revisions\/8357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}