If you are going to get the Shinko, a good pollinator is Shinseiki. They bloom at the same time in my yard and my son-in-law's yard (both Houston). The shinko is good as long as you don't get too much rain near ripening. They will be bland with the rain.....dry periods good. Shinseiki is better in my opinion, but it needs a pollinator. Shinko fruits without a pollinator, but much more fruit with a pollinator. Shinko does get blight....I lost mine after about 8 years due to blight....it was bad that year. I replaced my shinko with Tennosui. First time fruiting last year. Was not impressed with fruit. Mine were not crisp and low flavor. Tree may still be too young. I prefer crisp pears and my favorite is Southern Queen, sweet, flavorful and crisp. I may replace my Tennosui with it's sister, Southern King if the fruit don't improve. The Akers (acres) Home pear is very good. It is excellent flavor and sweetness after a week or two off the tree. No problems with blight, but it does have rot problems. You may have to spray.....don't know about San Antone. I think the rot problem may be why it is not pushed much anymore here, but it is excellent. I pulled mine due to rot and it is a melting pear and I like crisp.

campv: Stark's have a dwarf 'Hardy Giant' Asian pear dwarf supreme that they list as disease resistant. They say their other varieties of Asian pears are not disease resistant. Do you remember the name of the Asian pear that you have there? The pics of the 'Hardy Giant' show quite large pears but I'd expect them to be smaller here for us. fruitnut: I wonder if Stark's 'Hardy Giant'is similar to your Korean Giant or Olympic? I'd prefer firm/crunchy as opposed to juicy also!

This should work just fine I think. I think all varieties of Asian should be compatible with Bartlett and I think this is a great idea to maimize space. Graft away this winter. Scaper

There were talks about A. pears esp. Shinko in a few threads in the past. It seems some of us who live in the east coast do not care for Shinko for its taste. To me, it's so bland and is smallish (20th century is small, too, but does not taste that bland). I gave Shinko a chance for 3-4 years. The taste and the size did not improve (I thinned aggressively) so I kissed it good bye last year. I don't have enough space to hang on to a tree that performs poorly. I have Hosui, 20th Century and Korean Giant. KG consistently a winner every year. There are a number of people who are very happy with Shinko. I've noticed that they live further away from the east coast.