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19.06.2024 - 16:46 / gardenerspath.com / Kristine Lofgren
17 of the Best Fireblight Resistant Pear Varieties
Fireblight is a terror. It’s a bacterial disease that infects pears, plums, apples, and other fruit trees, transforming your plant from a luscious, productive specimen to an oozing, shriveled, blackened mess. And forget about enjoying any of the fruits.
Fireblight is caused by the bacteria Erwinia amylovora and is one of the most devastating diseases of pears.
When conditions are right for the bacteria, this disease can completely decimate an entire orchard in a single season.
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It originated in North America and has spread to the rest of the globe, leaving experts scrambling to find and breed trees that can withstand the effects of infection.
Plant breeders have been successful and we have quite a few options now that are able to resist infection. This doesn’t mean the tree is completely immune to the bacteria, it can still become infected, but symptoms are significantly reduced.
Here are the pear varieties worth looking at if you want to avoid fireblight:
17 Fireblight-Resistant Pear VarietiesAsian pears are more susceptible to the disease than European cultivars, so you’ll mostly see the latter on this list.
Keep an eye on the Ontario pear breeding program under Frank Kappel, Richard Layne, Harvey Quamme, and David Hunter.
They released the Harrow series, which includes ‘Harrow Delight,’ ‘Harrow Gold,’ ‘Harrow Crisp,’ and ‘Harrow Sweet,’ among others. All of these are at least moderately resistant to fireblight and there are more to come.
The West Virginia USDA breeding program under Richard Bell is also working on some options with excellent potential
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