Here in Kansas we have a tiny yellow jacket that used to flock to my moms crabapple when the fruit fell in the summer. They were in kind of a drunken state of bliss from all the rotting crabapples on the ground. You could literally pet the backs of them when they were like that. They are normally highly aggressive. We have plenty of wasps here at times that once in awhile suck the juice from some grapes. We mostly do not have much of anything like that right now. The droughts killed most of them. We seem to be entering our 5 year wet cycle that happens following a 5 year drought. Our weather is really messed up and that means im counting on nothing being normal. Im going to let the birds and wasps have all the crabapples they want. I have a couple of ornamentals. I will use them long term for crossing other hardier apples for use in my area. We will see what the seedlings are like.
Oops, I just noticed I misunderstood your comment about pears. I’ve never had a big problem with yellow jackets eating them- they go after my stone fruit, figs and apples first. They haven’t been bad this year and I just destroyed a big nest in the ground right in front of my house by dumping a load of compost over it yesterday afternoon. Those outside the nest sure were pissed off. I held them back with cold well water from the hose before making my dump. I’m much too impatient to wait until the cool of early morning. As long as I kill the queen the tribe is finished.
Apple, Honey Crisp, started to drop since the first of Sept. It is a few days earlier than usual.
The good news is there are fery few than have obvious signs of bitter pit. This whole box has one.
But is the brix high enough to make them really good? They look pretty green. I picked some higher colored ones today with yellow rather than green background color. Not that you had much choice.
To me they need to reach about 13.5 brix to be worth eating.
Have not measured brix yet but I can tell that it is not sweet. Crunchy, juicy but only mildly sweet. Fortunately, we have had no rain for over a week. That could help. I still have a lot more on this 16 year old tree.
I did not pick them. Those are dropped fruit. Not sure why they dropped since the seeds are not fully dark brown yet.
I think trees drop fruit at this stage when they are carrying more fruit than what they can nutritionally support. My Kidds Orange Red did the same. A few nectarine trees did so, too. But with the nectarines they dropped before reaching full size.
Despite my attempts to thin this tree for 3 rounds, it still carries a lot of fruit causing one large branch to break 75% off.
I’ve left it hanging like that to ripen apples on that branch. Will remove it after harvest.
They are very pretty! This was my worst apple year ever!
Sorry to hear that, Mrs.G.
It is a fruitful year of apples in New England.
One pear. That’s what the critters left me. Found it while I was removing the many scraggly upright branches on the 3 pear trees.
Better than zero pears, right?
@mamuang you inspired me! I just moved three plum trees. I was surprised how easy it was. I did have to cut a few big roots. They look sad now, but, hoping they recover from the shock. I watered the wholes 3 times each before digging them up. I also watered the trees before moving them… water water water, that is my plan. But now they have much more sunlight and hopefully will produce. Thanks for the encouragement.
Did your trees still have leaves when you moved them? If they did, hope you have their root balls in as much soil as you could manage. I usually moved trees when leaves were mostly gone (in the fall) or not emerge yet (in the spring).
Lisa,
What variety is that pear? I mostly gave up on Euro pears because I don’t have areas with more than 4-5 hours of sun for them. I noticed their production has declined and more issues showed up. The pears also do not ripen properly, particularly Abbe Fetel.
Have no idea. They were planted by the prior owners of the house just before they sold it to us. Weve been here almost 9 years now. Last year was the first year they fruited.
Abate Fetel need sun and heat, for sure. Sorry you can’t grow them. 
The big reason I gave up on most Euro pears because I have no patience to learn about how long it takes to refrigerate for each variety (a cold treatment) before ripening them on the counter.
I prefer the Harrow pear series. I can eat ripened pears off the trees.
Yup, not enough sun or heat.
The tree was full of blooms last year and this year. It set a handful of pears but none was able to ripen here.
A neighbor gave me a bunch of bartletts from their tree & knowing little to nothing about pears, i let them ripen on the counter. They were quite good! Made pear butter with vanilla & cardamom and pear jam with chocolate. Both absolute winners!
Pear jam with chocolate!!! May I get a recipe, please?
Some Euro pears need refrigeration. Others don’t.
I think I am finally getting the hang of this after many years, I go by how green they are. The Magness I am eating now I like to get nice and yellow in the fridge before taking out. I have no clue when I put them in or how relatively ripe they were when picked, just the color when I take them out. I take out all the pears every week or so and pick the yellowest ones to counter ripen. Nearly all Euro pears have a similar color when ripe. The only big exception for me is Fondante des Moulins-Lille which starts at bright green and mellows to light green.