Bloom time / Harvest time of pears

General Fruit Growing
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When picking out pear trees the first information you need to know is disease resistance and flavor. We have seen a thousand posts on these subjects and I won’t ask you read through another. Then the two second pieces of information everyone should know is when pears ripen and when they bloom. This information is much more difficult to find. For those of you who own the book " THE PEARS OF NEW YORK" Amazon.com: The Pears of New York: 9781117567655: Hedrick, Ulysses Prentiss, Howe, George Henry, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, .: Books some of this information is on pages 88-90. The kindle version of that book is a bargain right now at $1.99 . What I realized from reading it and my experience is many pears are mid season ripening pears and early bloomers. A late blooming variety can be very valuable on years such as this one. Douglas pears are mid season blooming and late season ripening as an example which can work out nice sometimes. Pears such as Dorset, doyenne d’ aleneon , le conte, mongohan etc would have a difficult time growing in Kansas because of very early bloom time. Many pears such as Pound, Sha lea, golden russet, Olivier de serres etc. are very late ripening which might be a problem in Kansas. Some people accidentally grow great pears but in most cases it takes a great deal of research and planning before you ever turn over the first shovel full of dirt. Many times factors outside our control at the time happen such as storms, mislabeling, diseases, animal pressure etc. . When deer show up they have frequently eaten the entire crop before we respond by putting up a fence etc… There are only so many years in a lifetime and growing pears reminds me of that frequently. Bloom time and ripening time are critical when planning your orchard for other reasons. When do you want your harvest? What is your work schedule at that time of year? If your work is seasonal pear ripening times are very important. If your yearly income comes from shrimping as an example you are working 16-20 hours per day during shrimping season and the pears will not get picked. I pick my fruit myself so I stagger my crops all through the year. Currently I have a lot of mid season pears and won’t want anymore going forward unless they are the Comice of mid season pears. What I don’t have a lot of are late season pears such as “duchess d’ angloume” and very late season pears such as “pound”. Very early pears might conflict with my cherry season. This link discusses pear ripening times https://www.grandpasorchard.com/_ccLib/attachments/pages/GOWeb-MaturityChart-PEAR(2013).pdf. This topic is not to be confused with pollination, parthenocarpy, or Ploidy although it may indirectly answer some of those questions. If you are looking for that information see these old posts

On the raintree website http://www.raintreenursery.com/plantcare/plant-care/pollination-charts/european-pear-pollinationripening/ they give a list discussing ripening order of many of their pears "
European pear ripening order

July
Bella de Giugno
Doyenne de Juliett

August
Ubileen
Morettini
Stuttgarter
Dabney

September
Red Clapps
Harrow Delight
Spalding
Rescue
Tennesee
Orcas
Ayers
Potomac
Blake’s Pride
Seckel
Atlantic Queen
White Doyenne
Bartlett

October
Warren
Duchess de Angouleme
Comice
Hendre Huffcap
Conference
Packham’s
Honeysweet
Highland
Bosc
Barnet
Butt
"
On the raintree website http://www.raintreenursery.com/plantcare/plant-care/pollination-charts/asian-pear-pollinationripening/ they give a list discussing ripening order of many of their Asian pears "
Asian pear ripening order
1.Shinsui
2.Hamese
3.Ichiban
4.Shinseiki
5.Kikisui
6.Kosui
7.Chojuro
8.Yongi
9.Yoinashi
10.Mishirasu
11.Atago
12.Seuri
13.Korean Giant
14.Tsu Li
"
Many common pear descriptions with pictures are on this website http://www.orangepippin.com/pears and https://www.ars.usda.gov/ which in some cases answer some of the ripening and blooming questions. The links I’ve given to the raintree website answers many pollination questions about pears though in this case I listed them for pear ripening times as discussed. I typically graft my own pears though I do purchase some pears from companies such as http://www.raintreenursery.com/Fruit_Trees/Pears/European_Pears/ and http://www.cumminsnursery.com/pear.htm and European Pear Trees for Sale | Burnt Ridge Nursery | Buy Pear Trees and | Grandpa's Orchard

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As soon as i get more information i can conform i will post it. The informatioon i acquired by growing pears many times conflicts with information thats out there

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Any updates on bloom times from personal experience? :slight_smile:

For me, the bees weren’t so active on the earlier blooms. I guess they slept through their alarm!

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@snowflake
Douglas winds up being a very early blooming pear here every year so far

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I had 10 Euro pears blooomed this year, Ayers, Blake’s Pride, Duchess, Fondante des Miulins-Lille, Harrow Delight, Harrow Sweet, Harvest Queen, Magness, Maxine and a mislabeled variety.

They all bloomed within 5-7 days apart. All overlapped their bloom time.

Ripening time was a big difference from earliest unknown in late July to very late Fondante and Duchess in mid to late Oct. While the bloom time was no more than one week apart, the ripening time was almost 3 months apart.

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@clarkinks

I may have to try douglas if its a fairly reliable and tastes ok. I had shied away from it because I figured it might be a bit too much like kieffer.

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It is but the flavor of douglas is more sprightly similar to an apple. Its pleasing to eat because of that flavor. Ive got the extra room and no apples. Kieffer just does not have a lot of flavor of any type in some areas. My improved kieffer are “ok” because we use them for canning. Cinnamon and cloves hide a multitude of sins in a jar of pears which kieffer needs. I eat kieffer fresh at times but i know what they are and what they are not. Douglas is considered the best of that group of pears.

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We’ve rarely had some luck with kieffer being just ok for eating under the perfect conditions. I’m just not sure what those conditions are because it’s only happened a couple of times :slight_smile: Maybe extreme drought followed by freezing them on the tree, or something weird like that. We haven’t picked that tree yet this year because other chores took priority.

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Clark, any update of pear ripe date in your orchard?
I also look for ripe date of Dashui li, Yali, Stark delicious/Maxine ripe date in Midwest climate

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Maxine is close as a rule we are a month earlier here than most places.

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About in which month?

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I grow Shin Li which is Daisui Li’s sister. I will try to remember to tag you when mine ripen. I imagine they’d ripen at a similar time. My Daisui Li has not fruited yet.

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Clark ,
Could you please post pics of Maxine? I have pear labeled Maxine but I am not sure if it is correctly labeled.

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@mamuang

Yes you asked at the right time they are ready to harvest. They are completely green with no blush. They taste very good this year.

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Mine are green, too. If you pick them now, mine will be 7-10 days after you. Does it need refrigeration?

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No it doesn’t but would benefit from it like most pears. The last time I ate these in 2019 they were only OK but the one I ate off the tree today was good. August 21st seems early but they ripen when they do. Here is a photo of a Maxine fruit @mamuang that I ate today

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