Talgar Pear

Synonyms: Talgar Beauty

Talgar Pear – a popular cultivar developed at the Kazakh Research Institute of Pomology and Viticulture by breeder A. N. Katseiko. It was obtained as a result of open pollination of the pear cultivar Lesnaya Krasavitsa. Widely grown in amateur orchards in Ukraine and Russia.

It is a medium-vigour tree with a broad-pyramidal crown of medium density and drooping branches. The scaffold limbs emerge from the trunk almost at right angles. The bark on the main branches and trunk is gray and peeling. Type of fruiting wood – spurs.

Shoots straight, of medium thickness, brown, glabrous. Lenticels numerous, medium-sized, clearly visible. Buds conical, large, appressed, glabrous.

Leaves ovate, long-acuminate, large, dark green, glossy, smooth with fine venation. The leaf blade is concave like a "boat" with a finely serrated margin, glabrous. Leaves borne on long petioles.

Blooms in mid-season.

Best pollinators: Clapp's Favourite, Hoverla, Conference.

Begins fruiting in the 4th–5th year; fruits annually and abundantly.

Fruits above average (170 g), bottle-shaped or elongate-pyriform, sometimes oblique at the apex. Skin glossy, smooth, oily, light yellow with a noticeable carmine blush on the sunny side covering most of the fruit. Subepidermal dots numerous, small; on the yellow part of the fruit they are green, on the sun-exposed side clearly visible and white. Pedicel of medium thickness and length, slightly curved. Stem cavity shallow, sometimes absent. Eye basin smooth, narrow, deep; calyx open. Core elliptical in shape, medium, with small closed chambers. Flesh creamy, crisp, medium-firm, fine-grained, juicy, with an excellent sweet taste. Fruits are for table use. Harvest maturity – end of September; eating maturity occurs in October–November. With late harvest the flesh may brown. Good transportability. Fruits do not drop and are resistant to bruising. Good keeping quality; in artificially cooled storage they keep until December, and no spots form during storage.

Hardiness zone 6a.

Site: not demanding on soil but grows better on light, sufficiently moist soils. The plant is drought-tolerant.

Pruning: same as for the common pear.

Diseases and pests: high resistance to scab, fungal diseases and pests

Uses: Fruits are consumed fresh, and used for drying and processing.