'Slimus erectus'

**"* H* <g*@charter.net>**

I returned home from a glorious week in Portland, enjoying gardens and grower displays, talking horticulture with experts and fellow hortiholics and experiencing the Oregon life to find my Asian pear tree was attacked by 'Slimus erectus.'  

The fruit-feeding vermin picked every one of the 44 Shenseiki Asian pears from the grafts on the Korean Giant Asian pear tree.  They were perfectly ripe, flawlessly organic due to my bagging them at thinning and succulent.  All the ripe Honeycrisp, Ashmead's Kernel, Pixie Crunch, Sweet Sixteen, Golden Delicious, Sops of Wine and Pitsmaston Pineapple apples on trees were ignored.  Obviously this creature has an economic agenda, as Asian pears sell for $2 each at the local grocery store.

The reason for my rant is that I've waited patiently for four years to eat a Shenseiki Asian pear.  The main tree, Korean Giant, has bore fruit for three seasons, but the Shenseiki grafts took longer to mature and set fruit.  The purloined crop was my first.  Now I have to wait another year to finally taste a Shenseiki.  

I will harvest next year, even if I have to buy a wolf or bear to patrol the yard.  
Doreen Howard
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