Hacker News Reader

Comment by leipert | Hacker News Reader

Kind of related: in former Eastern Germany they bred all kinds of new Pear varieties.

Pears are a little more finicky than apples and the fruit bruise more easily. Furthermore a lot of the varieties will go bad really quickly, so you basically have to eat them from the tree.

Because of those reasons there are just one or two varieties available in stores and there is not a lot of commercial interest in Pears. With the end of the GDR, also came the end of Pear breeding and there are barely any new breeds in the last 30 years.

To end on an Apple related note: my favorite GDR breed is the „Schweizer Orange“, „Swiss Orange“. Which is so ironic because there was no access to Switzerland nor good Oranges.

View on HN

Serendipitous seeing this mentioned here after my father very recently mentioned how much he missed the variety of pears that he could get when he went on komandirovkas to the GDR.

I don't understand "komandirovkas" in this context. Was he a Warsaw pact or Soviet intelligence agent working in the GDR? Or was he West German but traveled to East Germany for one reason or another?

No much simpler than that. On-site work effectively, but more centrally-driven and controlled.

Interesting, thanks for the information especially on Eastern Germany. I'm not super familiar with many apple/pear varieties but worked as quality control for a pear packaging factory for a summer. The fruit are basically picked hard and processed/packaged the same day. The most common defects are punctures from the short stems and then maybe bruising. I think most defective pears are then used for canning or similar products.

They do ripen really quick and turn from hard green to yellow/brown in a few days. A perfect pear is so good..

Fascinating! I went to look for more information about this, and didn't find anything at all, but did find this charming and interesting piece about German pear varieties from long before the descent of the Iron Curtain:

https://cider-review.com/2021/09/20/pyrus-a-personal-voyage/

I hope some of those trees are still around somewhere waiting for someone to find them.

Ah yeah, there are still cultivars of the old breeds, but the problem is that without new breeds being created, we are not combatting the challenges of climate change and diseases changing.

As you seem to know something about this, what's an apple/pear hybrid like? I assume they do hybridise. How about pear/quince? That should be an interesting one.

They don't hybridise as far as I know, or don't give anything long-lived.

An interesting hybrid though is x Sorbopyrus, a cross between a pear and sorb tree.

Never heard of it so for others https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipova

Can't cross with an apple but can with a whitebeam, I wouldn't have believed it. Amazing, thanks.

There are some apple-pear hybrids that produce fruit. Development work seems ongoing in Germany. Unfortunately for me as (mostly) an English speaker, most of the papers describing it are in German. Here's a summary of an abstract in English, though: https://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=US2014.... If you search for the primary author plus some keywords (Thilo Fischer Apfel Birne) you can find articles that give more details.

I'm guessing the Sorbopyrus you are describing is the Shipova: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipova. It's a surprisingly old hybrid. I've got one growing, but haven't gotten any fruit yet. Have you eaten it?

I have never eaten it, but it's at the top of my list of trees to grow once I have enough space for it.

Not that knowledgeable. We just wanted to plant a pear tree when our kid was born. The tree seller was very chatty and knowledgeable.

You also need to plant pears in pairs in order for them to pollinate each other. There are tables with which varieties go well with each other.

If you can, try comice. A diva to culture, but the fruit is fantastic.

Pears are not the easiest fruit to culture and in some areas is a doomed project from the start. --Don't-- buy trees in the supermarket without a sanitary tag. Go to a professional. Fireblight is a real pain

apple and pear don't hybridize. They don't even can be grafted one in the other. The tissues are rejected. There are round species of pears naturally shaped as an apple but they are not "pears" (common pears) neither apples. Are from Japan and are called nashis or sand pears. Tasty and crunchy, very good in salads

Pear and quince can hybridize producing a fruit called Pyronia (= Pyrus x Cydonia). Is not better than any of the parents, so it remains basically unknown and unavailable.

Quince is able to hybridize with apples and pears.

https://cornusmas.eu/catalogue/intergeneric-hybrids

has some information about some interesting mixes (and he sends out great plants if you are in Europe).

Palms also form fascinating hybrids and there is an active community of people around the world doing this and sharing information.

If anyone interested I stumbled on this https://www.agroforestry.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/site-files... "Rosaceae family intergeneric hybrids" which covers a number including those mentioned here, plus hawthorn, medlar and rowan mashups

> Swiss Orange“. Which is so ironic because there was no access to Switzerland nor good Oranges.

Perhaps this is what made it desirable.

It’s a pretty good Apple as well. Very crisp and more fresh-sour after harvest and becomes more sweet when stored for a few weeks.

And I stand corrected, it actually is Swiss and was created in 1935: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweizer_Orangenapfel

More information here for those of us who are teutonically challenged:

https://pomiferous.com/applebyname/schweitzer-orangenapfel-i...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com