I planted a Harrow Sweet this year from ACN. I was scared because the tree was tiny (vs the others they sent) and the roots were pretty sparse. It took awhile, but leafed out and grew nicely. I hope its a winner. We like pears more then apples in our house.

I picked probably 20lbs of Seckels and have been eating them for a few weeks. As sweet as sugar.

I still do like a good Bartlett.

Harrow Sweet is almost like a cross between Bartlett and Bosc.

This is a encouraging report. I topworked over a young tree to harrow sweet and vermont beauty 2 years ago on a similar recommendation.....wait and see

I believe it (harrow sweet) is also supposed to store reasonably well too.

....or was it harrow delight....guess I better go check the tags

Harrow Delight was, for some reason, the first of the Harrow series I tried and was familiar with it's qualities 10 years ago. It's a fine early pear but not in the class of HD, IMO, if only because I'm not very fond of early pears. It also isn't nearly as sweet, reaching about the level of Bartlett.

I'll also add my vote for Harrow Sweet. It's an outstanding pear as grown here.

Very sweet.

good to know..thanks

I accidentally wrote Highland instead of Harrow Sweet in one sentence of the description.

Highland was the pear most highly touted by Cornell when I started my nursery but it truly sucks, sucks, sucks IMO. It is the first pear to crack and defoliate in wet weather and it just doesn't get up enough sugar to be the Comice-type pear I was hoping for on sites I grow it.

All Highlands I manage are going to be grafted over to other varieties.

Sheldon is a very good pear with much of the luscious quality and similar squat shape of Comice, although not the high sugar of Harrow Sweet. It is also tricky to harvest as it doesn't change color as it gets close to ripe and rots in the center if not picked soon enough. I picked half my crop too early this year and they were bland and useless. I waited until a couple had dropped off the tree but it was too soon.

I just mailed my order of Harrow Sweet, Blake's Pride pears and other fruit trees to Schlaback's nursery yesterday.

I've learned about this Amish nursery with no Internet website from this forum (Scott Smith, I think-thank you).
I ordered from this nursery last year and was very happy with the trees they sent me and the price. I paid about $19-20 per tree.

They have the selections I want include TangO's peach this year.

They do have an interesting nursery. I'm glad the trees were of good quality.

The trees were good,3 Asian pears and two peaches (peach trees were a bit small than the pears). All grew well.

I was most impressed with their honesty because they sent me a refund without me knowing that I overpaid!!! (I read the price wrong).

I also noticed that Raintree carries it and highly praises it as the best flavored keeper pear. I wish I had discovered it a couple of decades ago.

I checked my tags and it is harrow sweet that I grafted in.

That tree saw -30F several times last winter with no apparent damage. Not that it counts for a lot as a test sample of 1....

My wife claims I am wrong and that it only made -25F last winter....I disagree but will need to check...I was pretty sure we had 3 nights drop below that.

I knew Schlabach Nursery when they were here in Ohio and visited their nursery in NY 2 years ago. I have bought trees from them for several years and have received very nice bareroot trees. David Schlabach, published a very good book, Backyard Fruit Production, that I think to be very informative. They are quality people with quality stock. I havn't ordered this year, but I think that I'll give Harrow Sweet a try. Thanks

"I also noticed that Raintree carries it and highly praises it as the best flavored keeper pear. I wish I had discovered it a couple of decades ago."

Hman,

I've also wondered why this pear is not more popular. Years ago I wanted a pear that ripened after Bartlett and had some fireblight res.

I stumbled on Harrow Sweet and thought it sounded pretty good. At the time I looked all over and only found only one mail order nursery that carried it. I ordered it from Fowler Nursery as a one tree order. Including shipping, it was the most expensive tree I've ever bought (50 dollars).

Based upon how many nurseries are now carrying it, it looks to be gaining popularity.

Olpea, it's a shame that breeding work often works out this way. You come up with a great new variety and it doesn't catch on until the patent is over. Pears in particular ought to be offered an extension because they take so long to fruit.

I'm surprise Fowler offered you a single tree- seems when I ordered from them I had to buy something like 30. Used to get my Olympics from them as no one out here carried it. I had to discover that one by myself also. Cornell has never offered any guidance on Asians and Adams has only started carrying Olympic in the last few years. In my area Olympic is much better than a dozen other Asians I've tried. More sugar, better texture,and the most beautiful big fruit you've ever seen. I don't find Asians very interesting tasting, however- just texture, juice and sugar.

I'm going to put a Bartlett in my yard. Have no idea of the cold hardiness, but hopefully it can manage an occasional -20F to -25F.

Bartletts manage well here with similar occassional lows. They are FB susceptible here however.

"I'm surprise Fowler offered you a single tree- seems when I ordered from them I had to buy something like 30. "

Hman,

I guess I didn't know any better at the time. I just called them up and ordered one and they shipped it when they said they would. As I'm sure you've learned, many times when dealing with businesses, you get a different answer when a different person picks up the phone.

I just jumped over to the Fowler Website and they show a homegrower catalog for local pick-up. Looks like they still offer Harrow Sweet.

Dang you harvestman, another variety I have to add.

Maybe I can squeeze one more 100' row in my front yard..

Scott

Scott, I keep telling you I'll swap wood with you, although I've no Harrow Sweet wood to lightly spare. I can't remember right now what it is you have that I wanted but it will come to me.

I have to warn you that as good as HS is you may not be crazy about it as it's not a subtle pear. It's almost like Seckel with a little more luscious in its texture and, of course, less skin. Somewhat like Bosc without the graininess and more juice. I have a feeling you might actually prefer Sheldon, which bears at about the same time is not quite as sweet but has Comice texture with some acid behind its sugar.

I'm thinking that Harrow Sweet may be the better cropper, however. Sheldon seems to be bienniel so far. We'll see.

Just an FYI if your interested. Harrow Sweet is still under patent protection. The patent expires 2015.

Oops. Well at least that's good news from the standpoint of them getting some money into their fine program.

I picked my pear varieties about ten years ago and I never expanded them so I have an odd collection of varieties - primarily old French or Belgian ones. Somehow I never ran into Sheldon, not sure how, because it gets a "very good to best" in the Pears of NY, the classic US pear book. If I do put in this new row its going to have a good portion of pears allocated to it, partly because I need to thin out what I have in my current pear row which has pears too close.

Scott

HM - what do you mean, "less skin"? "without the graininess" sounds encouraging.

Well a larger pear has relatively less skin which is often more pleasing to the palate. Also, this year it seemed that my Seckel pears were a bit thick skinned, but that may have been because of the monsoon we had here. Seems it wasn't a problem in the past.

I'd be quite interested in a pear that had much thinner, less sharp skin - morelike an apple. And fewer stone cells. If there were such a thing.

Scott-

Do you have Duchesse d'Angouleme?

If you do, would you consider it something worth growing? I've read it can attain huge size.

Frank, thats the kind of pear I was focusing on. For that particular one I decided not to try it since the size seemed to be the main reason for its reputation. It got a "good to very good" in pears of NY.

Scott

>>> I'm going to put a Bartlett in my yard. Have no idea of the cold hardiness, but hopefully it can manage an occasional -20F to -25F

Frank, there are still several of what I believe to be old Bartlet's around my hometown here that seem to be able to handle the cold Winter extreme's here in cold z4 North Iowa. A few of them I can remember being in place when I was a youngster (am 54 now). One of them, actually two way back then, I used to walk by every day on my way to school during middle school. They were sidewalk trees close to the street! Which made it really hard to suppress my urges to snitch at least one, but somehow I managed - Rats! - lol. But there is just one now, and it's fruiting has dropped way off because of that I suppose.

It is definitely a dwarf type. Was OHxF 333 around way back then I wonder - @ 40 years ago? I checked this last remaining tree out today while driving by, and it has a good supply of scion wood on it. I'm seriously considering going on a door knocking mission very soon. No guts, no glory, as they say. At least feel out the possibilities. It is leaning badly though however, so don't know how much longer it can hold on. I could always offer to stake tie it for them, in exchange for some scion wood. And who knows, possibly I could also score some extras for others if any are interested.

The Harrow Sweet sounds like a true winner. Bummer on the patent date issue. Had hopes of adding that one to my 4 x 1 tree that I planted this spring. It has Kiefer on it that will get replaced either by necessity or default. It was one of the Dave Wilson FB resistant mixed variety multi-trees. It also has Harrow Delight on it, but it doesn't appear to be holding its own very well right now. I'll have to keep a close eye out on that scaffold too I believe. So may need to add two more scion types next Spring to it. Time will tell of course. But at least the local Bartlet can hopefully fill one slot. Maybe Sheldon as another option if need be, since apparently Harrow Sweet is not yet available, then too if the Sheldon is FBr and hardy enough for here. I need to try to stick to the FB resistant theme if possible. I'll just have to get me a HS tree, simple as that. I don't have any problem going about it that way.

Lots to take place and ponder between now and next Spring. And this is considering only one trees worth of options! How do you more involved orchardists keep it all strait? Kudo's to you all! Harvestman, thanks for basically backing up my own previously formed Harrow Sweet opinion/choice as a solid Pear option for me. That was good to see coming from you.

Questar- get some of that wood. Just because the pear looks like Bartlett doesn't mean it is the same as other Bartletts or should I say, actually a Bartlett.

Seems unlikely the tree is on 333 and may even be a genetic dwarf. I believe that 40 years ago the only dwarfs likely offered in a home orchard type catalog would have been on quince which wouldn't survive there, as I understand it (although I've read of quince being used in cold climates by planting it below the soil line.

You should obviously ask the owner if the fruit is palatable, however. Too bad you never tasted one.

Non-commercial tree owners are almost always willing to accommodate a reasonable request. My concern would be with finding a nice piece of wood on an aging tree- often the last-year's growth is just little twiggy stuff.

Good luck,

M

What I referred to as scion wood on this leaner is all perpendicular type top-growth (watersprouts ?). Looks to me as if the tree did a forced growth response for itself as one last flush of renewal growth in it's attempt to extend it's life.

And ya harvestman, that thought was occurring to me as I typed my response last eve. I really do wish I had snitched one as a youngster. Didn't want to have to explain that one to pa though - HA! I will definitely inquire as to palatability when conversing with the current owners. The 6/7 or so fruits I saw hanging on it earlier this Fall seemed fairly bright yellow and with good size. Hence, my assumption towards it being a Bartlet or similar type. Then one day they were all mostly on the ground. Next time by they had all been gathered up. This tree is on a route that I regularly take traveling through town, so I have regular drive by looks at it.

Sorry folks, but I see now that my 'perpendicular' in my previous post should have been 'vertical', in reference to the prospective scion wood growth pattern.

I need to get a cup of straight-up black coffee in me before typing out early morning posts!

What is the name of that very hardy pear that stays hard and doesn't get sweet enough to be a very good eating pear? It is picked late in the season but is used primarily for canning. I wonder if that might be the pear we're talking about as it looks like Bartlett but ripens much later. It turns golden on the tree while remaining as hard as a rock.

Hman,
Are you refering to Kieffer?

Yes.

Questor, those vertical water sprouts make very good scions.

>>> Questor, those vertical water sprouts make very good scions.

Thanks marknmt, and yes, that is the very point I was trying to make. Only in a longer winded form coming from me. I think I will be in good shape if I can get the necessary permission. It needs to be top trimmed anyway. So will offer to do that for them. And then just hang on to whatever scion wood out of that. That is if I can properly time the two procedures together. What would be the optimal timing in which to accomplish this combo in terms of next seasons growth? - Bud swell or possibly a bit earlier?

Even though watersprouts can be removed at any time, you have to have dormant wood when you collect scions. So it makes sense to wait until the snow starts to melt and you can get to the trees easily, and then remove the sprouts and collect your scions. Don't wait until bud swell to collect them. Do, however, wait until bud break to graft, so that the scions will have all the advantages of the spring surge.

Good luck,

M

Thanks again marknmt, I'll just let it go at that for now. My apologies for misdirecting this thread a bit.
~
Harrow Sweet - sounds like a truly great pear option! I hope to get the opportunity to give the actual fruit a try somehow in the near future.