Le Curé

Le Curé or Pastoralka (Kaluđerka), originates from France, where it was discovered as far back as 1760 as a chance seedling by a priest, or friar, after whom it was named. Due to the legendary robustness and longevity of the tree, giant fruit size, and exceptional productivity, it is the best-known and most widespread old winter pear variety throughout the Balkans. Due to its unique natural compatibility, it is also the most important interstock variety in nursery production practice.

It is a distinctly triploid variety with completely sterile pollen. It cannot pollinate itself, nor can it pollinate any other variety in the orchard, so it cannot be used as a pollinator. For this reason, orchards with Kaluđerka must include at least two different diploid pollinator varieties that flower at the same time in order to ensure cross-pollination of all varieties on the plot. Since it flowers very early in spring, its best and field-proven pollinators are Santa Maria, Clapp’s Favorite, Giffard, and Conference. Due to its early flowering, the flower buds may be sensitive to late spring frosts.

The tree is extremely vigorous, strong, powerful, and long-lived, forming a large, wide, and tall pyramidal canopy with strong scaffold branches that bend in arches under the weight of the crop. It enters full bearing somewhat later, around the fourth or fifth year after planting, but afterwards produces regular, stable, extremely abundant, and record-breaking yields. It responds very well to strong pruning in order to control vigor and requires mandatory fruit thinning in early summer to prevent branches from breaking under the weight of the crop.

It belongs to the group of late winter pear varieties. In our region and under continental climatic conditions, it reaches harvest maturity in early October.

Harvesting takes place during the first half of October, exclusively at full technological maturity while the fruit is still firm and yellow-green. Timely harvesting is crucial, because fruit picked at the right time tolerates transport and storage exceptionally well.

It has exceptionally good long-term storage ability. In standard cold storage, it can be successfully kept for 3–5 months, while in modern ULO cold storage with controlled atmosphere it retains firmness until spring. A characteristic feature of this variety is that the fruit has an astringent and average taste at harvest, while its full, significantly better, sweeter, and recognizable quality develops only after a certain period of storage, or post-harvest ripening. It is widely used for fresh table consumption during winter, as well as for industrial processing into juices, purées, jams, and pear brandy.

The fruit is large to very large, with an average weight of 200–250 g, while individual fruit often reach over 350 g. It has a characteristic elongated, asymmetrical, and irregular pear shape, with a distinctive longitudinal brown, russet line or stripe extending from the stem all the way to the calyx end of the fruit. The skin is thick, firm, and smooth, yellow-green at harvest, later turning an attractive straw-yellow color during storage. The flesh is pale yellow to white, firm, compact, semi-melting, and very juicy. The taste is refreshing, mild, and moderately sweet, with low acidity and a delicate, pleasant aroma.

It is characterized by outstanding resistance of the tree to harsh winter frosts and tolerates summer droughts and poorer agroecological conditions very well. On the other hand, it is highly susceptible to pear scab on leaves and fruit, Venturia pyrina, so in humid and rainy years it requires maximally intensive and regular preventive chemical protection from the very beginning of vegetation. It is moderately susceptible to fire blight, Erwinia amylovora, and pear psylla.

Our pear fruit trees are produced on highly compatible and certified rootstocks. Kaluđerka has perfect, complete, and naturally superior direct 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, where it also serves as a premium interstock for other sensitive varieties such as Williams. It is also produced on the generative wild pear rootstock, Pyrus communis, for drier, poorer, and heavier soils.