Here is a link to pear ripening order, but unfortunately Kieffer doesn’t make the list. I have read somewhere on here that Kieffer is a late ripening pear though(after Bartlett), which fits the bill for mine. We usually harvest it sometime in October. Right now they are starting to sweeten and getting a bit of yellow, but there are starchy flavors yet and still hard. So probably about right for harvest. I’ve cut the water in that area and would like to let them go for a bit longer if I can. I probably should have cut the water a week ago though.
You do have some pretty handsome pears, the shapes of mine are all over the place. Some are squatty like Comice some look like Bartlett others fit the Kieffer profile, but they all taste the same and ripen the same so that side of the tree is homogenous.
I plan on adding Harrow Sweet to the grafting side of my tree as well, I don’t think it will be too late. Also want to try Clapp’s Favorite again. I grafted Clapp’s last summer but it was a little too late, the scion took but didn’t grow enough to make it through winter and spring. I tried to get some scion of Clark’s Yellow also but didn’t have any luck, so…if you get some and have extra left-over let me know, I’ll take it. The last one I plan on grafting in there is Abbe Fatale, just an experiment really but I really enjoy that variety and if it can make it and give me some pears that would be super.
As far as the tree splitting, I have thought about using cable or putting all thread through it with plates on each side. I think I just setteled on keeping that side of the tree about as-is with pruning. If the load doesn’t get much bigger than it has already dealt with it should be alright. And if in the future if the trunk looks like it want’s to split itself like Callary can do, maybe I will will just take some cuttings off the Keiffer side and prune that one off and regraft to some branches. It will certainely grow some new branches to fill the space and then I can graft again. Hopefully it just doesn’t split as a surprise.