I think I waited too long to pick the Drippin’ Honey asian pears.
They are nice size and taste great, yellow outside, but brown much of the inside.
At first I thought it was bruising but they all have seem to have the same problem.
Is it correct that they are over-ripe?
Picked 'em about a week ago here in zone 6/7.
Picked a different variety weeks earlier.
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Yes they are overripe. When determining correct picking time tilt the pear up about 50% and when it breaks off in your hand it’s ripe.
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It appears even good pears ( no bug damaged inside) will rot from inside when overripe.
Unfortunately, my two Drippin’ Honet cracked badly. The one I let hung on the tree ended up rotting. However, if not rotted, it would have ripened around Sept 20-25. Your zone is warmer than mine. Your DH may be ready by the first two weeks of Sept.
Here in southern NY Asian pears don’t get interior browning from being on the tree too long, but DH is a variety I don’t grow. I would recommend Korean Giant which can hang on the tree into Nov and still be sound and good to store for months. However, it is easy to see when it is ripe because the skin turns from greenish brown to beautiful golden.
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Alan,
DH is a July or August pear here in Kansas. Its a great pear! KG has its own problems but similar to DH is a pear I recommend.
That works reliably with European pears but the Asians seemed to cling and needed effort. And they were still over-ripe.
I lost a lot of European pears to cracking with a rainy spell we had here. But the Asian pears had no cracking problems.
But I did lose a branch to heavy fruit set when they were still green. I confess I don’t do thinning because I just can’t bring myself to do it.
The suggested ripening dates for fruit in the catalogs can be right on but the one for the DH said October. They were right for my zone for everything except the DH. Early September seems too early here but I think I’ll go with color change next time assuming we get anything next season.
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Right. These turned to a nice yellow but I waited too long. A real shame. They are incredible.
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Asian pears have a cracking problem, too. For me, 20th century crack more than other varieties I have.
@alan, I believe I’ve had A pears rotted internally when waiting too long before. However, I will leave one or two KG hanging to see if it happens this year.
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Somehow, I thought you were in zone 7. Your are in my zone. I am 6a and sometimes 5b. Your DH should ripen about the same week or a week before mine depending if you are in 6a or b.
Don’t know why @clarkinks DH is a month ahead of us. He is in zone 6, too!!!
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Likely because of the hot summers. We seem to ripen a lot of things a little early.
I am zone 7. I just looked at Stark and they say zone 7 DH matures in October. Whatever, it messed up my DH crop.
So your DH should really be ripen by mid Sept.
Around Sept 10 next year, you could pick one and cut it up. If the seeds are dark brown, you are all set. If not, wait a few more days.
Sorry for this year. It happpen to all of us when we do not know ripening date.
I still haven’t got E pears figured out after all these years. I still struggle with timing the harvests. This year I waited until a significant amount of fruit had already dropped but pears on the trees were still green and hard. The fallen pears had no insect damage and were over ripe. Some of the pears I picked that I’ve taken out of the fridge green and softened with room temps have been awful. The ones that turn yellow in the fridge are great. I hope they will all ripen in the fridge that way in the next couple of months.
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Bubbabgone,
This thread may help Drippin' Honey Asian Pear. Mine have been ripening around August 15th in recent years but July in other years. @tonyOmahaz5 you grow lots of pears like I do did your Drippin’ Honey get ripe in July or August or so in zone 5 Nebraska? Tony’s winter weather is a shade cooler than mine but summers are similar. Tony is a couple of hours away from me.
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My DH ripened in the middle of August. A very tasty Asian pear.
Tony
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Besides the ripening date mystery, waiting for E. pears makes me nervous because of the crows. This year I stuck a couple of fake crows upside down and I only had to chase them away a couple of times.
I’m stunned. It was early September here in south central PA when the DH branch broke and the fruit was a lot smaller and still very green. Bizarre because it was already somewhat sweet. I’m thinking the end of September when they started to get a bit yellow would have been right.
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Bubba,
After a few years of observing Tony’s and Clark’s fruit ripening time comparing to me, I conclude that I am at least 2-3 weeks behind them.
Although Tony is in zone 5, a zone lower than me, his summer temp and sun is more intense than mine. That’s probably why his fruit ripen much sooner.
We just have to go by our own experience.
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