I felt drippen honey was a large pear and this one is a third to half again larger on a good year

Keep in mind this variety still has another month before it's truly ripe. The late ripening time is very appealing to me because then I have pears when pears are not widely available. The fact that it's big is great as well. There are lots of advantages and of course the disadvantage is for the farmer it always breaks limbs. It seems like every other year it produces large fruit according to the farmer.

How does it taste? like a keiffer?

Orient pears often weigh 1.5 lbs, but I agree yours looks more like a Keiffer

How does it taste? like a keiffer?

Orient pears often weigh 1.5 lbs, but I agree yours looks more like a Keiffer

Last year it was delicious and this year blan but not grainy. It does not taste like the other two varieties I purchased as kieffer's. Do you think it's a kieffer with that late of a ripening time? The guy thought the tag when he bought it said Bartlett and I told him it was definitely not Bartlett.
Bartlett's ripen around July / Aug here .

About size of a soft ball some maybe a little bigger

2nd photo -- Hope you get an ID because I would love to know what I got. Your description fits my pears perfectly

That looks like them Campv. I'm wondering how many pears out there could be any bigger? The skin always shows a lumpiness as well almost like it's been stretched. This picture doesn't do it justice but it may be a clue. Also note the dots on the pear similar to those Asian pears have.

I have an Asian pear and can feel the dots like they were pimples- not on this. I bought this tree at Home depot(bare root) about 8 years ago and it grew unbelievably it is now about 15+ ft, lost the label or it was on plastic container. I definitely know it did not say it was an Asian. But then you know HD, everything is not always labeled right. I have been trying to figure out what it was for years.

Clark--I just had an epiphany after all this time.
We bought the Asian pear first and it needed a pollinator.
So I went out into the garage to look through the labels and I found the one for the shinseiki pear. The pollinator was chojuro or Bartlett. I am betting that my pear is a Bartlett because what are the chances that HD would have a chojuro bare root. Slim to none. So its a Bartlett and I'm sticking to it, also the pictures and growth match on line.

The biggest I know of is DUCHESSE D'ANGOULEME ... I've never grown it, but I think Scott has.

Some of my Maxines get just about that big and it's a much better tasting pear than Barlett.

Hopefully Scott will see this and tell us about DUCHESSE D'ANGOULEME. I've heard good things about Maxine. I don't think these are Bartlett because the red Bartlett I grow is a mid season and not a late variety. Bartlett are a very juicy pear more so than these. Honestly at this point they could be anything.

I strongly suspect this is the original kieffer pear and one of the so called kieffers I have is a seedling or something else entirely. The other is the so called improved variety. Check out the ripening time on kieffer it's a late season and everything else adds up. At this point I believe that's what it is.

I was about to mention Duchesse but you beat me to it! There are two versions, one russet one not and yours looks like the non-russet version. It has been popular in the US for a long time so its a likely match.

I'm not growing it myself, I have many French/Belgian pear varieties but not that one.

Scott

Thanks Scott for clearing up the mystery. I put these on callery root stock this spring so I would anticipate the first crop in 2 years. These trees are adults I had top worked to another variety previously that I had to many of.

So Scott is saying the pears we have are not Bartlett or kieffer.
The correct ID is Duchesse non- russet version

What about Turnbull Giant? I've never seen TG fruit; think I had it grafted at one point in time, but not sure what became of it.

lucky_p,
Sounds like Turnbull Giant and DUCHESSE D'ANGOULEME are both capable of producing 2 pd fruit which i find to be amazing. You may be interested in these two old newspaper articles from the 1980's

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19811026&id=-_QpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=32QFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3435,5625066

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1917&dat=19840413&id=yQwhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=S3MFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2373,2971349

The article below reports turnbull may even be capable of producing fruit up to three pounds

http://newsok.com/depew-couple-receives-patent-for-discovery-of-pear-tree/article/1965361

I guess since I added DUCHESSE this year maybe I will add Turnbull next year

Gardenweb has talked about the turnbull a few times and pics the fruit of on those threads

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/okgard/msg0213200514752.html

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fruit/msg0215374917013.html

I've got (or had) a branch of D d'A around here somewhere, as well as D d'A Bronzee...which may have fruited this year - there was a very russetted pear out there in the orchard, on the tree I stuck those varieties on.

lucky_p,
How large was the russet form of DUCHESSE? I've got a dozen or more pears to graft next year so it sounds like I better mark them soon. Great links lkz5ia thanks for posting them. I did not realize the turnbull were round.

I have not been in the loop on large pears because apparently the current world record was over 6 pounds http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/11000/heaviest-pear . Prior to that apparently over 4lbs http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/fruit/msg1115115311823.html

This post was edited by ClarkinKS on Fri, Oct 24, 14 at 18:17

Clark,
I don't recall them being of inordinate size. Just kinda average pears... Had a lot going on about that time, never got to try one; imagine the deer ate 'em all.

I'd be more concerned about how the pear tastes than how big it is. Who wants a softball sized blah pear.

Thanks lucky! Rayrose I'm definitely looking for both qualities. Seckel is one of the best tasting pears but unfortunately due to it's size I will never grow more than a tree or two of it. I'm looking for a new very large orchard variety that I can plant twenty trees of. Drippin honey for example I planted 3 trees of because it has a great flavor and pears the size of softballs.

Heres my mega pineapple freak!

Firescreek35,

We didnot see the picture you intended to post. Can you try and repost? Thanks

Clark

Dolly Parton comes to mind, nyuk nyuk

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