Shinko Asian Pear

The Shinko Asian Pear is a top-quality variety of these delicious fruits, which combines the crunch and tang of apples with the sweetness and floral perfume of pears. The apple-shaped fruits have a russet skin and white flesh, and ripen on the tree to perfection. Once harvested they can be stored for 3 months in the fridge, so nothing gets wasted. Much easier to grow than European pears, it makes an attractive small tree around 15 feet tall, with profuse spring blooms of creamy-white and red fall leaves.

• Delicious crunchy fruits like apples
• All the fragrance and sweetness of pears
• Resistant to diseases that kill European pear trees
• Fruit stores for 3 months in the fridge
• Plant another Asian pear for pollination

Full sun gives the best results with the Shinko Asian Pear. It grows best in richer, well-drained soils, so use compost to enrich the soil, and as mulch. It has good resistance to fire-blight that so easily kills other pear trees, and it is much tougher and easier to grow. Prune to develop an open form that ripens the fruit best, and plant a second, different variety of Asian pear to act as a pollinator.