Hi everyone,
My lady friend has selected Taylor's Gold as "the" pear to have, I have some rootstock planted which it could go on; but need a source of budwood to bud graft onto it - anybody have one or know of one in or around Oregon that I can get some from? Would prefer to graft my own, but guess could always end up just buying a tree!
I'm in Corvallis:)
Thanks -
Dave
lotus026@yahoo.com
I see it has its own patent number, and has recently crossed to this side of the pond from New Zealand, so my guess is you will have to locate a treelet to purchase from somebody licensed to do so. I wonder if any growers in the Hood River area sell this pear?
The variety is a bud mutation of the `Doyenne du Comice` variety. United States Patent PP08308
Both `Taylor's Gold` and `Doyenne du Comice` appear to respond similarly to disease in that they have a higher resistance than most other pear varieties to most diseases with the exception of Pseudomonas syringae to which both `Taylor's Gold` and `Doyenne du Comice` are susceptible.
Yeah, I was kind of thinking that to be legal I'd need to buy a tree - know they're available here, just preferred to graft it myself! And my GF & I both think the Taylor's Gold is better than the Comice, besides having the wonderful gold russeted skin:) I know that Kiyokawa Orchards in Parkdale behind Mt. Hood has them, that's where we first tasted them last year and my GF fell in love with them! Though now we've just bought a place with an old orchard on it, as of a couple of hours ago - in Buena Vista, Oregon, near Independence; 14 acres planted mostly in various plums but also a sprinkling of apples, pears, cherries & hazelnuts; most not having had anything done with them in decades!! We're pretty sure that a bulldozer will be involved in clearing out the undergrowth and unwanted trees, just too many trees and too much blackberry & poison oak around them to make good pasture for her 2 horses! I'm going to be kept busy soon trying to bushwhack my way through the place in the coming months to attempt to identify the fruit as it comes in, so we can at least save some of the better trees until we know what's there that we know we want to keep - the aerial photos show almost a solid grid of orchard trees on most of the property, and I guess plums no longer make much money around here; though they used to in the past.
We visited one of my GF's fellow Vet School classmates that happens to live 2 miles away; she's an unintentional cherry farmer - bought her dream house there 8 years ago; but it came with a cherry orchard, so she's kept running that to help pay the bills for the place. Now she's actually ripping out old plum trees to put in new cherry trees, and has about 80 acres in cherries - they picked 2 semi loads today; and going for 3 tomorrow!! And this is just her side job to being a Vet Dr. & clinic owner!!
Dave
Congrats on taking the landowner plunge! I am sure you will have alot of fun and work, not necessarily in that order!
This article says that there is 14 acres of those pears growing in Salem. Also mentions 200 trees of Taylors Gold at the WSU research/trial facility in Mount Vernon, WA.
A few things stood out about the article right away:
"productivity can be low, even on the quince rootstock. Taylor's Gold is even less productive on Old Home by Farmingdale 87 or 97, and Moulton thinks it might be less productive than the regular Comice."
"he's stopped planting for the time being because of the variety's erratic cropping. Lack of fruit set has been a problem, particularly this year."
I am thinking that maybe you and your lady friend would appreciate the fruit tastings at the October fruit show that HOS puts on. The times I have gone, they have had hundreds of sorts of apples and pears to taste! That can help a person hone in on other cultivars they like, perhaps cultivars that even bear good crops every year, instead of the spotty crop.
Okay, have given up for now on budwood; now trying to locate a Taylor's Gold tree to buy! I've tried most of the places I've encountered, including several of the big commercial nurseries up in Washington; but nobody seems to have them; only place I've found is Fowler Nursery down in California, and then they only list it in their commercial section - and I don't want hundreds of them, only 1 tree! Anyone else have ideas or suggestions on places to try? Really need to know who holds the propagation right for the US I think......
Thanks!
Dave
lotus026@yahoo.com
Never mind, after much searching I located a tree....from the same place twhich provided the trees to the 2 orchards in the NW that I've found the pears at:) Fowler Nursery in California is one of only 3 licensed propagators of Taylor's Gold, and they only had it listed in their commercial section; but they were happy to sell me a single tree for the same as what they sell their other "Backyard Tree Sales" ones for, though it won't be dug up until Dec. then shipped early next spring. If anyone's interested, it's on Quince rootstock; they say that it seems to do the best on it; and also that it needs cooler weather to fully russet - does fine here in the Willamette Valley; but not so good over in E. Washington!
Dave
Yes, I agree that they're a great tasting pear; that's why we wanted to plant one! Though I didn't expect that it would be so hard to find a tree; until I thought about it recently after reading up on them more - Taylor's Gold only does well in fairly specific climate conditions, which just happens to be in the Willamette Valley where I live! Even in Hood River I'd expect them to be a bit harder to grow well, and for them not to russet fully. And talking with the manager at EZ Orchards in Salem, he said they took out 49 bins of them this year from his 200 trees young trees, so guess they like the climate here:)
Dave
Dave,
Congratulations for closing in on what you want! The thrill of the hunt cannot be discounted.
There was a certain apple and certain grape that I had wanted for years. The grape just fell into my lap, so to speak, one spring day while talking to a new grape grower aquaintance. Best thing that ever happened to my vineyard. And I eventually located an apple fancier with the precise apple I needed, and he parted with some scion wood. But I had to be patient in both cases.
Hope your new property is causing you some fun!
This pear seems to be the winner in our household. My daughter and wife love them and I can't argue that it has some really nice flesh and is quite pretty to boot.
It should be off of patent around 2010 if I calculate correctly.
Also it is supposed to be a sport of Comice. Can anybody compare the two? I haven't eaten them both in the same year. It sounds like I need to get some good Comice fruit and have the family sample them.
I've heard Comice can be finicky to grow.
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