Their trees. Some dwarf, semi, and full. Some varieties have several trees. Grown for farmers market. I have been trying to change all the varieties over to easy to ripen varieties so they are easier to sell.
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I have a few problems with Euro pears:
- the timing of picking them. Too early, they don’t taste good, too late they suffer internal rot.
- which varieties need refrigeration (which do not) and how long?
- some take so long to fruit
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Don’t complain about pears to much. Remember brown rot?
Pears have been the easiest thing I grow. I’m still struggling with the picking myself. I don’t believe the tilt test anymore. The fridge is what I mean about ripening for sale. Only selling varieties that do not need the fridge. Just keeping my favorite fridge pears.
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Of course, comparing to stone fruit, pears are a lot easier to grow for me, too.
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I agree it’s definitely very similar to Bartlett. I really like Bartlett flavor, so I like Harrow Delight.
My experience is more like Alan’s and Tippy’s. That is, Harrow Delight is not only smaller, but also a slight notch below in flavor to Bartlett. In my case, part of the reason may be because I tend to over crop Harrow Delight.
We have one mature HD which is nothing but spurs, and several younger HDs. We spur prune the mature HD, but even then it’s easy to let it carry too many fruit.
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Considering everyone but me thinks Harrow delight is not as good as Bartlett I would consider that before growing it. Find myself questioning my decisions to grow so many. Anytime we grow pears as an experiment we are taking a risk our taste buds change as we age. Other people tried these pears rating them very highly besides me at my farm. Maybe everyone of the other admins had better bartlett pears than me on a regular basis. At least we can establish its Bartlett like in flavor and earlier which means very highly sought after. If it’s not as good as bartlett at a Minimum it beats it to market. Some locations grow pears better than others as well. One thing I noticed is my location gets less water than everyone’s location that does not have great luck with Harrow delight. My annual rainfall is around 34"
Kansas city has 42" rainfall
New York 46" rainfall
Etc. So 8" - 10" rainfall makes a huge difference in the flavor of pears. My pears are incredible on a drought year so perhaps that accounts for the differences.
Think we all agree on Harrow sweet which I think as discussed in the video below as being bartlett lIke but deeper more like comice. The pear flavor is more pronounced.
Had made a duplicate thread at some point and much was discussed before Harrow Delight
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I bet HD is just as good as any other variety in that ripening bracket.
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Harrow delight are nice trees here in Kansas. Will be growing many more of these. The tree in the photo is a 4 or 5 year old with about average fruit set in a very poor location. This location was so bad nothing but callery would grow there due to standing water at times.
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I’m in southern California. My summers are hot. I’m growing harrow delight on ohxf 87. It’s the second or third seasonn in the ground (planted bare root). It produced two fruits on the tree for the first time. I’m excited to try them this year. I get 400-600 chill hours at most.
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@Martin
I think you’re going to have success. My experience with bareroot pears planted in-ground in north county San Diego has been just a few fruits in years 2-3 and full crops in years 5-6 onward.
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When do they ripen there? Are they any better with the fridge?
I grafted them this year, but thinking about a few more.
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They are very good here because of our 100 degree days but im told in some climates they are not as good.
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I’m thinking to get an Harrow Sweet pear… what do you think about it?
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this thread makes them sound great. I’m wondering where is best to get one for spring- likely a seedling as I don’t have pears growing to graft to
I’m in eastern WA. high desert, cold winter hot summer. which is going to produce better and be better tasting here? anyone? if it’s doing good in Kansas or the dry prairie it’ll probably be good here
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eastern WA is one of the biggest pear growing regions in the world but I couldn’t find anything on harrow pears grown there… my guess is they’d do great, but no data
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I haven’t been able to find any for sale here this year earlier, I’ll be looking in the fall. I have room for one pear tree. I’m running out of space finally. just this and jujube left to go
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I have a Harrow Sweet grafted on a Harrow Delight. Still a long way off! I could send scions in Feb. Remind me then. What pears do you have?
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none! I’ll have to look for good rootstock or a bare root
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My two harrow delight pears were delicious. Here in southern California, by the time the tilt test worked, the fruit was a little overripe. It was better if I just checked the fruit near the stem for slight softness. Once it’s slightly soft, I take it off the tree and let it ripen a few more days on the shelf.
What I also found interesting was that none of my harrow delight pears had seeds. I’ve read that pear trees can produce fruit in southern California without pollination. I’m not sure if this was an example of that or not.
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