Bella di Giugno (June Beauty)

June Beauty, also known as Bella di Giugno or Precoce di Altedo, originates from Italy, where it was developed in the mid-20th century and released into production in 1953 by the renowned Professor Elvio Morettini in Florence, through crossing Early Morettini, Butirra Precoce Morettini, and Coscia. In fruit growing, it is highly valued and globally popular as the first commercial summer pear variety to open the season. Due to its extremely early ripening and beautiful appearance, it is highly attractive and sought after both for the market and for home gardens.

It is a fully cross-pollinated, self-sterile variety. It cannot set fruit with its own pollen, so the presence of compatible pollinator varieties that flower at the same time is essential in the orchard. Since it flowers very early and very abundantly, its best and field-proven pollinators are Early Morettini, Santa Maria, and Clapp’s Favorite. Early varieties such as Williams do not overlap ideally with it during the flowering stage.

The tree is moderately vigorous to vigorous, with a regular, elegant, pyramidal, and medium-dense canopy supported by scaffold branches that form excellent angles. It enters full bearing extremely early, often setting and producing its first fruit as early as the second or third year after planting. Once it starts bearing, it produces regular, stable, extremely abundant, and record-breaking yields per tree. It requires standard and regular pruning in order to maintain a proper balance between growth and fruit size.

It belongs to the group of very early summer pear varieties. In our region and under continental climatic conditions, it ripens first, at the end of June and in early July, usually between June 25 and July 5, around one month before the standard Williams variety.

Harvesting takes place at the end of June, exclusively at the stage of technological maturity while the fruit is still completely firm. Timely harvesting is crucial; due to summer heat, fruit that overripens on the tree loses juice extremely quickly and becomes mealy, losing all market value.

It has poor storage ability, which is standard for the first summer fruit varieties. In standard cold storage, it successfully retains firmness and freshness for only 7 to 10 days, up to a maximum of two weeks. After harvest, the fruit requires rapid and urgent placement on the market. It tolerates careful transport in shallow crates well if harvested at technological maturity. It is primarily a premium table variety for the first summer fresh consumption at the beginning of the season, and it is also excellent for homemade juices and first compotes.

The fruit is small to medium-sized for the early season, with an average weight of around 60–80 g, uniform on the tree, and regular in its elongated pear shape. The skin is thin, smooth, and glossy, light green at harvest, later turning yellowish at maturity. Its greatest aesthetic advantage is that the sun-exposed side, over more than 40–50% of the surface, is covered with an exceptionally attractive bright red marbled blush and overcolor. The flesh is yellowish-white, moderately firm, compact, juicy, and very fine. The taste is refreshing, moderately sweet, mild, and very pleasant, with a fine and delicate fruity aroma.

It is a moderately resistant variety. It shows good resistance of the wood to winter frosts. However, due to its very early start of vegetation and flowering, its flower buds are highly sensitive to late spring frosts, so warmer and elevated sites should be selected. It is moderately susceptible to fire blight, Erwinia amylovora, and pear scab on leaves and fruit, Venturia pyrina, which requires regular, professional, and timely preventive chemical protection throughout the growing season, as well as protection from wasps and birds attracted by the early sweet crop.

Our pear fruit trees are produced on highly compatible and certified rootstocks. Unlike Williams, June Beauty has exceptional and perfect natural compatibility with quince, which is why in our nursery it is grafted directly, without an interstock, onto vegetative rootstocks Quince M-A and Quince BA-29, guaranteeing early entry into bearing and ideal growth control in intensive, higher-density orchards. It is also produced on the generative wild pear rootstock, Pyrus communis, for drier and heavier soils.