Luscious Pear (Spring 2027)

Overview

Luscious is a dessert-quality pear developed for cold regions by South Dakota State University, with a strong reputation for flavor and for being useful in northern plantings. The late, legendary Montana fruit grower Rod McIver introduced Luscious to Luke back in 2015. He had several 25+ year old Luscious' that would bear prolifically every year in Kalispell, MT.

History & Parentage

SDSU’s bulletin describes Luscious as coming from a 1954 cross between South Dakota E31 and Ewart; it was selected in 1967 (as South Dakota 67S11).

Fruit Quality & Uses

Luscious is a juicy, sweet, Bartlett-like dessert pear with melting texture. It’s primarily a fresh-eating pear, and it’s also commonly used for general kitchen uses.

Growth Habit & Spacing

A vigorous grower, like most hardy pears, it’s commonly grown on seedling rootstocks that make standard-size trees. We are growing this on OHxF87 rootstock—so spacing often ends up in the ~15 ft range, although we also offer it on Ussurian, which should be planted 18-20 ft. apart. Tighter spacing for each of these rootstocks can work with more pruning.

Pollination

Luscious has sterile/poor pollen and should not be relied on to pollenize other pears; it needs a compatible pear nearby for it to set fruit, such as d'anjour, Bartlett, Summercrisp, Stuttgarter Gaishirtle, or others. But if you are just planting Luscious and one other, you'll need three total given Luscious' sterile pollen.

Cold Hardiness

Retail listings commonly place it as zone 4, although in our experience, it is a solid zone 3 tree, having survived -35F temps for Rod McIver in Kalispell. Purvis also lists it as zone 3.