Many pears do ripen better with refrigeration but it’s mostly texture that’s improved but for some it can be flavor. Ayers is still a southern pear and still has some grit and some flavor not everyone likes. Some family members peel them and love them without the peel. It’s juicy and melting but some palates are then confused and feel a little betrayed by the occasional grit next to the peel or by the core there can be grit. In the south it’s considered one of the very best. I agree with them I enjoy it but cannot rate it as high as Warren, Harrow sweet, Harrow delight, seckel and other disease resistant pears. It does not mean I don’t love these sweet , refreshing , wonderful ayers pears! They are productive and delicious but don’t expect them to be clara frijs they are not that class of pears.
Evidently my Ayers are both something else…strange as one tree came from “the nursery capital” McMinnville, TN and the other in a scion trade from the Left coast. A large pear quite a bit bigger and just a tad later than Bartlett.
My story is the opposite. I bought six pears from Lowes a while back. 2 Ayers, 2 Bartlett, and 2 Moonglow. They all fruited for the first time this year and turns out every one of them is an Ayers. That means all the pears at Lowes no matter what tag it had was an Ayers that year. @clarkinks is correct though. To me they are OK with a lot more grit. I think plain Bartlett is better.
Let me revise my above Ayers rating. Have to admit they took me off guard because their taste is different. After eating a lot more of them they grow on you though. Missing the classic acidic pear flavor, but has almost like a slight vanilla flavor. When it comes to production though I give them a ten. They are machines.
I am ordering an AYRES Pear (developed at Univ of Tenn.) advertised as AYERS pear from Raintree nursery that looks like your fruit.
However, I see AYERS pear trees advertised at other nurseries that look differently (more bartlett shaped).
There is an Ayers pear from Kansas that is different from the Tenn. AYRES (Anjou x Garber cross) named after the former president of UT, Dr. Brown AYRES.
I am posting pictures of how they look. Are these Ayers pears the same or different variety??
Only the top one is ayers which is red blushing Bartlett. @39thparallel sells pears from my orchard I know what they are. Many pears are called multiple names some are slang but we don’t know that only experience teaches us that. Karl’s favorite is ewart and Bartlett is Williams and the list goes on and on. The name red blushing Bartlett comes from the tag when I bought them which was clearly mislabeled.
We can see why they called them that. They are juicy and delicious but can be off flavored at times or have some grit. They are considered the best pear In the south by many Here comes the 2016 apple and Pear harvest!
Obviously the “Ayers” scions I received from washington a couple years back aren’t Ayers.
It made a pear between the shape of Bartlett and Bosc…and russeted but not like Bosc…considerably larger than either. A nice pear.
I’ve bought a new tree labeled “Ayers”…so maybe it will have the correct fruit.
So the Red Blushing Bartlett listed on 39th Parallel Orchard is actually the Tenn. Ayres pear? Thanks for your help. I ordered some scions of the Red Blushing Bartlett so it is good to know that it actually a Tenn. Ayres.
Frank
It is ayers the tenn is a different pear. They are reportedly from the same breeding program which I documented here in 2017 Pear buds, blossoms, and fruit 2017 - #171 by clarkinks . Want to make sure Noone confuses Ayer and ayers as well Anyone growing the Ayer pear? Its not the same pear as Ayers
Hence where it’s confused with Bartlett. If there are very few on the tree and I mean 10 or less the pears can be bigger kind of like a Bartlett but rougher but very large. Here is an example note the 3 larger pears look less red. I think Bartlett is a stretch but they don’t look like ayers but they are. That is more rare to see those larger pears than you would think. Side by side you can see those look like a different type of pear but they are not. The shaded side of the pear won’t be red at all. One not shaded at all in full sun will be all red.
Here is another link showing ayers once again I thought was red blushing Bartlett which I’m still laughing about Here comes the 2018 apple & pear harvest!
Ayers is heavy with blooms again
So is mine, after several years of fighting fb.
I’m glad to hear good fortune is smiling on you again this year. It’s a good pear in my opinion for those of us who like a sweet , melting, dripping pear! It’s one of the best for the south in the heart of fireblight country so here in Kansas we very seldom see strikes on these trees. In my opinion anyone with an ayers pear tree is very fortunate. By a twist of fate I accidentally grow to many not realizing at first I was a victim of mislabeled we called it red blushing Bartlett for years. It was sold to me by a big box as a red Bartlett many years ago but I can only smile as they did me a favor. Meanwhile I grafted ayers as I had heard it was a good pear. Imagine my surprise when I found out I owned it for years! Only through good record keeping did I discover what happened. Fortunately when I tagged things I took photos as well An untagged pear wound up being Ayers - Been wanting that variety
@clarkinks Your Ayer tree seems to be very tall, have you ever pruned it? My Ayer tree just keeps putting out new shoots, and in a blink of eye, they grow sky high! I can’t keep up with pruning. I am wondering what would happen if I just give up pruning and let it grow all natural ?
Yes that’s what I do just let it grow a full sized pear will get about 25 - 30 feet here in Kansas. Get a long Picking pole or tall ladder eg. Docapole you get alot more pears that way. Fireblight is not a problem so there is no need to keep it short. One of my trees I put in over 25 years ago now. The storms don’t break its branches either. Ayers likes to grow very large as you said straight up don’t try to fight the tree. In the event you don’t pick the ones at the top of the tree do you really care? I always leave some for the animals anyway there is way more than a hundred of pounds on each tree. It never has seemed important to me to get every pear. Most farmers growing short trees will need 3x more land than me to grow the same crop. The other farmers get upset when they see these truck loads of pears but its not a secret how i do it. Wouldn’t it make sense a tree 3x as tall produces 3x as many pears? Then they get mad at the deer because they eat their crop that’s down low where it’s easy to reach. It’s not the fault of the deer I would do the same if I was the deer. Yes I think there is a lot of good things to be said about tall trees. Ayers does not like being cut back it will send that vegetative growth right up which attracts diseases like fireblight. That vegetative growth the pear is desperately trying to grow could be pears. Most pear farmers are harvesting wood and not fruit. If your in the scion business short pear trees makes a lot of sense. Think of it like this if your determined to do something nothing can stand in your way and an ayers is determined to grow straight up. Not all pears are like ayers some of my pears top out around 10 feet tall. Yali or Harrow sweet can easily be controlled at 8 or 10 feet if you want to but ayers will fight to grow to the sky everytime.
@clarkinks I am very relieved to know that I don’t have to keep pruning Ayer and dispose the tons of branches and the tree can still be ok. 
I will just let it grow naturally. Thank you!
This is a photo from today. You can see it’s very heavy producing and easy to care for!
@clarkinks Your Ayer tree looks really nice! Mine is tall, but it doesn’t have much flowers on the higher branches.
Think I have 5 ayers now. The original was mislabeled. Found out becauseI heard all types of good things about ayers so i planted ayers. As the new ayers grew I started to put 2 and 2 together! Eventually I realized I had many ayers trees. It’s very funny how much mislabeling goes on. Anymore I don’t even expect the correct pear if I buy one. Starks , henry fields and gurnies to name a few are very good at sending the correct item. Burgess plants are mislabeled 60% of the time but rarely I buy from them when I don’t care. As an example they had red white and blue grapes years ago for $10. I don’t dislike any grapes so mislabeling is fine. When I talked to them I said send whatever grape you want. They are a close out company strictly so they are not held to the same standard as if I pay $50 per tree.
5 Ayes! Your yard must rain with ayer pears in the fall! What do you do with that many pear? Mine hasn’t produced too many yet.