Long-awaited (Elegy)

Late autumn variety from the Southern Ural Research Institute of Fruit and Vegetable Growing and Potato Cultivation. Obtained by crossing Ussuriyskaya No. 78 with Lesnaya Krasavitsa. Breeders: P. A. Zhavoronkov, A. L. Danilova, M. A. Mazunin, L. I. Bolotova. The variety is widely grown in the Ural and West Siberian regions, officially approved for the West Siberian region.

Medium-sized tree (4.5–5 m). Crown is flat-round, medium density. Branches emerge from the trunk at a sharp angle. Bark is gray and peeling. Predominant type of fruiting structures — short fruiting spurs.

Buds are medium length, slightly curved, brown. Buds are elongated and yellow. Buds are small, conical. Leaves are above average size, round, slightly pointed at the apex, with a spiral tip, dark green, smooth, shiny. Leaf blade is flat or slightly folded, without hairs. Leaf margin is finely toothed, slightly wavy. Petiole is long and thin.

Fruits are small (average weight 60 g, maximum 90 g), irregularly shaped, double-truncated-conical or egg-shaped, slightly ribbed. Skin is medium thickness, rough, with a waxy coating. Color at harvest maturity is greenish-yellow with a blurred brick-red blush; at consumer maturity — yellow or golden-yellow with a blurred, well-defined brick-red blush. Skin spots are numerous, medium-sized, clearly visible, gray. Pit is small or absent, with a swelling at the fruit stalk. Fruit stalk is long, medium thickness, upright. Calyx is non-deciduous, half-open. Calyx cup is absent.

Flesh is creamy, granular, very juicy, sweet-sour taste. Taste evaluation according to data from the Southern Ural Institute of Fruit and Vegetable Growing and Potato Cultivation: 4.0 points.

Fruits contain 13.4% soluble solids, 7.1% sugars, 1.3% titratable acids, 5 mg/100g ascorbic acid. The variety has high juice yield (71%).

In Chelyabinsk, harvest maturity occurs from October 5 to October 10.

Fruits are consumed from October to the end of December. Best pollinators: Severyanka, Yakovlevka.

Trees begin fruiting at 6–7 years after grafting. Fruit production is not sharply periodic. Yield is high, averaging 35 kg per tree.

Highly winter-hardy. Trees planted in 1968 survived two severe winters — 1968/1969 and 1978/1979. Average frost damage was 2 points.

Resistant to scab and slightly affected by pear gall mite.

Advantages of the variety: high winter hardiness, yield, late fruit ripening.