My favorites are Asian Pears but those too are highly susceptible to fire blight, I had 2 of them which produced well but both died from FB a few years ago when they were about 10 YO. FB on Asian trees spreads much more quickly compared to typical pear trees. Today I have 2 Bartletts and 1 Keifer. I also planted a Seckel, it's now 4 years old but has yet to bloom.

.I am partial to comice but they are a challenge for me to grow well so we generally just sick with tried and tested conference.

FB much rarer, I think, here in UK. I have never seen it (although plenty of other stuff like pear midge, plum pocket and on and on...and as for the bloody curl (peaches and almonds) Grrr.

So far, strawbs get redcore, raspberries get virus or cane blight, blackcurrants get big bud mite...and the pigeons get everything else. Only got apples, a coupla pears and gages left. Disheartened fruit grower.

A public allotment is just a disease sump - I took to growing UK oddities such as aronia, golden currants, saskatoons in desperation because absolutely everyone on my plot tends to leave their diseased stock in place,

No alliums either (cos white rot). s'no wonder I am giving up on fruit and veg...

Not as many pear choices in MN, but I gave the new release from the University of MN called Juicy Jewel a try last year. Got 7 on it this year and growing nicely. Seems to have good resistance to fireblight in MN at least. I've tasted the fruit at events at the Hort research station here and it is quite tasty.

I should have mentioned I *HATE* Asian pears. I'm just looking for regular 'ol pears.

I have one pear tree and it is about 30 years old. I remember buying three Comice pears but am not sure if all 3 were comice. Lost the other two pear trees. Not to fire blight. I thought you had to have more than one pear for pollination but my lone pear is pollinated by something and has had some big crops the past few years. I wonder if the many Bradford pears in the area can pollinate a fruit bearing pear.

This year I think the tree has fire blight. I have not done anything about it. Can it survive if I cut off affected branches? They look black. I am bad about not harvesting fruit . Especially pears...they seem to go from rock hard to overripe all of a sudden.