Another Fire Blight Resistant Pear
Pear 'Shenandoah'
‘Shenandoah’ is the third fire blight-resistant pear cultivar to be developed by US Agricultural Research Service horticulturist Richard Bell. Fire Blight is a devastating pear disease caused by a bacterium, Erwinia amylovora, and is native to North America. It greatly limits pear production in eastern and mid-western states, so growers in California, Oregon and Washington produce most of the pears harvested in the United States. ‘Shenandoah’ can be grown in all production regions, but it is thought will be especially useful in areas where fire blight is prevalent. In the Eastern United States, pears mature and are harvested from early August through early October. ‘Shenandoah’ matures in September, about four weeks after the widely grown 'Bartlett' cultivar. The new pear can be stored for up to four months in cold air storage.
Richard Bell and colleagues at the ARS Appalachian Fruit Research Station, Kearneysville, West Virginia, began developing the original seedling of ‘Shenandoah’ more than two decades ago. As pear trees have a long juvenile period, they do not produce enough fruit for evaluation until they are five to eight years old. The researchers then spent an additional eight years studying how long the ‘Shenandoah’ pear tree takes to bear a crop, the quality of the crop's yield and its consistency from one year to the next. This cultivar is only available in limited numbers to home gardeners in North America at present.
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Philip
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‘Shenandoah’ is the third fire blight-resistant pear cultivar to be developed by US Agricultural Research Service horticulturist Richard Bell. Fire Blight is a devastating pear disease caused by a bacterium, Erwinia amylovora, and is native to North America. It greatly limits pear production in eastern and mid-western states, so growers in California, Oregon and Washington produce most of the pears harvested in the United States. ‘Shenandoah’ can be grown in all production regions, but it is thought will be especially useful in areas where fire blight is prevalent. In the Eastern United States, pears mature and are harvested from early August through early October. ‘Shenandoah’ matures in September, about four weeks after the widely grown 'Bartlett' cultivar. The new pear can be stored for up to four months in cold air storage.
Richard Bell and colleagues at the ARS Appalachian Fruit Research Station, Kearneysville, West Virginia, began developing the original seedling of ‘Shenandoah’ more than two decades ago. As pear trees have a long juvenile period, they do not produce enough fruit for evaluation until they are five to eight years old. The researchers then spent an additional eight years studying how long the ‘Shenandoah’ pear tree takes to bear a crop, the quality of the crop's yield and its consistency from one year to the next. This cultivar is only available in limited numbers to home gardeners in North America at present.
To read more gardening and plant news from the News pages of the GardenMessenger web-site click here.
Happy Gardening
Philip
GardenMessenger
To join the GardenMessenger gardening community
click here.
To visit the GardenMessenger web-site
click here.
Directory of Gardening Blogs
posted by Philip Swindells | 12:16 PM
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