I have tasted and love the Honsui Asian Pear. In searching the forums here to see if it is a good fit to easily grow in my coastal influenced SW WA climate, I found only one reference to problems with Pseudomonas in the Vancouver WA area. Do others have this problem, or are there some productive trees bearing fruit in this area? Maybe too many questions here, but can this be controlled by summer (dry weather) pruning? Lastly, would the problem be better or worse, closer to the coast where the temps are a bit more moderate, but maybe slightly damper. To rephrase the last question, which has the most influence, temperatures or rainfall?
This is not an answer you are exactly going to like, but plant it. It might work out, or it might not, at which point you remove it and try something else. But at least then you would know and would have had a few fruits to enjoy (in theory). I know that can be frustrating, waiting for second tree to grow in, but if you have your heart set on something, give it a try unless you have strong evidence not to.
I have never heard of Asian pears doing poorly in our climate, and I've heard of many that grow them successfully. I agree with candlepdx: plant it. You may find that you need to prune it a lot, put organic material in the sandy soil, or make sure it is in 100% full sun. You can move a tree. I've moved dozens of them. I have many trees in which I love the fruit, and I never would have known. I have no memory of regretting planting a tree that I liked. Go for it!
John S
PDX OR
A really nice guy from Tennessee mailed me some scions of a variety called "Tennosui". I think it is a seedling of Hosui in Tennessee that has some different characteristics. It took and seems to be growing well. I have since noted that some of the now 6 varieties on my tree have varying slight signs of disease pressure: small dots, etc. We have had a dreadful, drippy spring, but it seems to be drying out now. I look forward to tasting it, so I would try the Hosui. I have put ziploc bags and footie sox on them because they can easily be nailed by the codling moth here.
John S
PDX OR
Because the pear tree variety named 'Tennessee' had good disease resistance in the Houston area, but lacked a super quality fruit, an experimental mass seed planting was done with Tennessee seeds in hopes of possibly finding a better fruit. Of those seeds that became trees, there were 2 that produced quality fruit and retained good disease resistance. One had pale green skin, was medium size, sweet, crispy, and in general looked like a European pear. It was given the name Southern King. I enjoyed sampling the fruit from this seedling and have 5 branches growing here after doing bark grafts with some of it's twigs last August. The other winner from the mass seed planting was given the 'hybrid' name Tennosui because the seed came from the variety 'Tennessee', but the features of it's fruit are very much Asian like a 'Hosui' tree in the same orchard. Obviously, the bees transferred Hosui pollen to a Tennessee flower, which became a fruit whose seeds were planted. I also sampled fruit from this tree (with permission) and really liked it. The crispy, white, sweet,apple shaped,medium sized fruit are covered with a slightly thick, yellow/tan, blemish free skin. The disease resistance is good. There are now many Tennosui branches growing on several pear trees here that were in need of upgrading. If pear growers there wanted to graft Tennosui scions to trees that are actively growing new leaves, bark grafts could be done with budwood that is still dormant in the fridge here. Let me know if you want any.
Last December (2013) I had tried something different on an older asian pear that had been planted in my yard of 18 years. All those years it had produced one or two fruits and never more than that in any given year. This time (last December) I had tried to prove if the rain was causing bacteria to destroy the flowers with something new by covering buds on two of the branches.
Now here we are this many months later with proof the product worked and that I will get the full crop on the two branches that I tried. The rest of the untreated branches won't do anything (as usual). I don't know the name of the product yet but I will have to get more from the builders store that gave me this indoor (latex?) goop, but I produced an image. The goop is non smelly and produces the same elastic stretching as rubber cement when it dries.
http://home.comcast.net/~hollaus/Greens ... gSpurs.htm
It would have to be of "commercial use" for it to be that good of a patent idea.
(a) This can't even pass through a sprayer any better than real tooth paste will unless you invent a better sprayer 
. But for us it's still cheaper than going to a greenhouse when all you really need to do is tent over many of the buds for a few dormant months of the year.
(b) Pears that are PNW poor here like Hosui are winners in California.
If I find this to (for real) work one more year in a row I'm going to remove the old greenhouse for good. The only thing it contained was one non peach curl resistant peach which I also pasted and the only portion that got a leaf curling was the vertical expanding tip that probably leaked around February time.
Idyllwild
simplepress
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
John S
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