Richard Bell works to develop better pears with the flavor of Bartlett and resistance to fireblight and pear psylla, and more precocious. One of the problems with pears is their lack of precocity. They stay juvenile, taking up valuable space and waiting just too long to grow up and produce fruit. That problem is actually a double whammy. If you’re trying to breed better pears, perhaps looking for those that are more precocious, it takes a long time. The breeding cycle in pears from seedling cross to final ­evaluation has traditionally been 30 years or more. The Bartlett pear, now […]