Fire blight tolerant pears give hope to Canadian growers
The reason being a handful of new varieties that offer fire blight resistance, cold hardiness and high-density production are re-energizing the industry.
Last winter, 20,000 cases of Cold Snap pears were sold to Ontario retailers, said Matt Ecker, sales and business development manager for the Vineland Growers Cooperative, which has the exclusive rights to grow and market the pear in Canada.
Cold Snap is the marketing program for Harovin Sundown, a pear nearly 40 years in development by the now-defunct Harrow breeding program at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s research station in Ontario.
Vineland Innovation and Research Centre researcher Michael Kauzlaric, said they are hoping to build on the success of Cold Snap by offering cultivars that have wider harvest windows, enabling growers to extend their season, and that provide exciting new varieties to consumers.
All three new pears have good fire blight tolerance and are well-suited to cold Canadian winters, Kauzlaric said. And they are well suited to producing high yields of large fruit in high-density plantings.
That was the key to enticing growers to give the new pears a chance, Ecker said.
Read more at goodfruit.com
