I tasted my first HD this year and like everyone said it was excellent. Ripening snuck up on me. My gradted had a half dozen oears on it and i didnt realize it was an early rioening pear. Was walking through the orchard and saw a few of them on the ground overly ripe. Picked the remaining ones and all were fantastic. I did not have internal rot issues. Even with those on the ground. Just wish I had more of them. I will probably remove some of the asian pear grafts I have and regraft HD to them.
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In our Kansas climate they are very good for an early pear. No internal breakdown makes them really easy to grow! Picking this pear at the perfect time is not easy it can sneak up on you.
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I have an HD as part of my pear fence on one side of my veg garden. It is the only one to bear a heavy crop every single year. The fruit falls and rots because the last thing I need is pears to deal with in Aug. I am overwhelmed with peaches, nects and plums at that time and my early apples get only a little more respect, but at least I don’t have to worry about timing the harvest for them.
I get my first hankering for pears when the weather turns cool in mid Oct or so. I don’t have room to refrigerate pears before the beginning of Oct, so Harrow Sweet, Dutchess and Sheldon, all of which ripen after mid-Sept are good for me. Bosc would be also if it wasn’t such a disease and insect magnet.
My customers tend to like Seckel a lot because you can actually wait until fruit starts to drop from the tree and harvest fruit that has clearly changed color and it’s still good. In our climate, it also gets up good sugar, even without full exposure to sun. That isn’t true of many other pears. However, it is far from bullet proof as far as pest issues. Scab, psyla and plant bugs often damage or destroy the crop when Harrow Sweet is fine. However at some sites it produced fine fruit without a single spray.
As I’ve often written here, Harrow Sweet is the most reliable later pear I grow and only Harrow Delight bears as consistently. Bartlett comes close.
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I agree with you about growing pears are not as easy as it seems. During the first couple of years of getting fruit, I wrote that pears are one of the easier fruit to grow. I spoke too soon, obviously.
Pear blister mites, psylla, Tarnished plant bugs, stink bugs are really pear enemies in my area. This year, 80% of all my light crop Korean Giant got stink bugs and tarnished plant bug damage. Those pears were seriously damaged this year. They mis-shaped pears were beyond saved, unfortunately.
My Harrow Delight graft set a lot of fruit last year and took a year off this year. My Harrow Sweet is the only pear I grow that bears reliably every single year.
I don’t think pears are difficult to grow, either. They definitely are not as easy as you think once those various pests found your trees.
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The weird thing about pears in my region is how spotty such pest pressure is. Of course, some pears are more resistant but pressure varies hugely from site to site, and that’s probably why people get confused about how hard they are to grow.
Even the question of self-fertility or fruitfulness is regional, but more predictable. When weather is warm and clear through spring, pear varieties that would otherwise abandon uncross-pollinated fruit will often hold and ripen it. For instance, some years Seckel is self-fruitful here and others it is not.
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So got my first 2 Harrow Delight’s off a graft this year. Just wondering on your ripening strategy. How long do you keep in the fridge before putting on the counter to finish ripening? Any experience on maximum fridge storage times before they start rotting? Then leave on the counter until you just can start compressing around the stem correct? First time trying to ripen pears so would appreciate any suggestions.
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Harrow delight are very easy to ripen unlike many. They are creamy and good without refrigeration. If you picked them 4 days ago your likely starting to see some color change from green to more of a greenish yellow. The neck will have give when you push on it and they are ready . They are not their best in the first year but give you an idea of what your growing.
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The only question is what do we do with so many pears?
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Once you are done jarring them you are left with producing perry, I suppose. Maybe you should pursue producing organic perry as a money maker.
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These harrow delight are looking good! No matter how many I grow and no matter how heavy they produce they are a good quality pear! Like it’s sibling Harrow sweet I can’t get enough of them as they have a good flavor even when I have to many !
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The Harrow breeders seem to know what they are doing. Both Sweet and Delight are the rare pear that bear young and every year here.
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Do they require Cold storage like a European pear do they have any keeping qualities
how would you rate them against a top pear like Magnese
Thanks
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Comparable to Magness but Harrow delight is much better overall. They are better in cold storage but good enough without.
Magness takes for bloody ever to yield but is a delicious, FB and psyla resistant pear. I cut down the only tree in my orchard after waiting a decade for fruit- I didn’t know then what I know now about grafting. I have a graft on a Harrow Sweet tree that I’ve been waiting 5 years to fruit and there are no flowers on it this season- the Sweet branches are loaded as they are most every year. I also have a Seckel pear tree in my orchard that has two big Harrow Sweet branches on it. The Seckel had a light crop last year and almost no flowers this one- the HS branches are nothing but flowers.
I’ve never tasted the two (Harrow Sweet and Magness) side by side and, as grown here, Harrow Delight is not up to the quality of either (I’m a long ways from KS). Both of these Harrows ripen pretty well right on the tree without developing interior rot in my conditions. I don’t take pears seriously in August, which is the middle of stone fruit season here, so Delight never had a chance with me.
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Yes Harrow sweet is everyone’s favorite when it’s ripe and here it’s higher quality than Harrow delight. They do not ripen at the same time HD is early summer and HS is fall. The size of HS is typically half of HD and magness but it can be equal size when excessively thinned. Hs has a tendency to bear to heavy so it takes time removing pears most years. Magness is not a heavy bearer and like HS slightly more suseptible to disease than HD. Harrow sweet is slightly more susceptible to disease than harrow delight or Warren as mentioned but all are very resistant. WARREN and Magness are both light bearers and HS and HD are both heavy bearing pears. Warren and Magness slightly shade Harrow delight in taste but they are later and are not commercial quantity so not comparable. Harrow delight must be grown in full hot sun if not the quality will be low. Warren and Magness can be grown in partialshade and still produce higher quality pears. Is Warren a higher quality pear? Yes your 1 peace of fruit to every 30 peaces of Harrow delight fruit will taste slightly better. Is that a higher quality tree? In my opinion because of the issues Warren and magness have Harrow delight and Harrow sweet make more sense in Kansas. Where there is higher disease pressure like the south Warren makes more sense than HS or Magness. Many southern growers will choose ayers but it can have some off taste in the peal and some grit in the skin sometimes. Ayers is a true melting delicious pear that is similar in production to Harrow delight (a heavy producer). Someone can argue Warren is a higher quality tree but my opinion is different a tree like Warren that makes 50 -100 pears on a full sized treeis hardly the quality of ayers or Harrow delight overall. Ayers and HD are both disease resistant like Warren but can produce 50 times as many pears in the same space as Warren. Magness is so much like Warren you can get the two trees mixed up as they are siblings. Back to what I’m saying I grow 1 Warren tree only because of the light production. Grow 7 or more Harrow delight. Grow 5 ayers trees. The idea of growing pears is to Harvest some. Is it a high quality pear knowing these things? Bartlett is popular with the grower and consumer in certain regions but most of us have to high of disease pressure to grow it. Harrow delight is meant to Rival Bartlett in marginal climate like Canadian prairies where Bartlett is not grown. Kansas is similar to Canada in many ways so Harrow delight is a good fit here. An area with cooler summers that dont reach 100 degrees better stay away from HD they cannot properly ripen it so quality will suffer. The sugar levels will never get high enough in places that are colder but they can grow it. They should stick to other pears better for their cooler climate. Cold weather can concentrate sugars in fruit as well when temperatures are extreme. Duchess D’ Angoulme was very late last year so all pears tasted refrigerator ripened as we ate them very late in the year from the tree.
On this tree the red pears are Warren on the left and the green colored ones on the right are ewart aka Karls favorite.
Now look at ayers
Now look at the Harrow delight again from above
Made a similar post to this one every year Here comes the 2016 apple and Pear harvest!
Enjoy Potomac as well and it’s disease resistant Here comes the 2016 apple and Pear harvest!
Back to what I’ve been saying Harrow delight is overall very hard to beat for late bloom time. Heavy harvest, disease resistance. Fast production (3years) if you have the right climate. My property is what I would consider in the Harrow delight goldilocks zone it’s just right here. If you were never a child in Europe or the USA and your reading this thread and don’t understand goldilocks slang here is the children’s story it comes from Goldilocks and the Three Bears | DLTK-Teach
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You must get a lot more heat units than I do in my NY state orchard and members should know that evaluations are extremely prone to regional bias- bias not in the sense of unfair evaluation but that the evaluation is specific to the particular weather where it is grown.
Here, Harrow Delight is essentially an early and small Bartlett. Maybe not quite as good.
Beginning fruit growers may have difficulty grasping the huge difference in quality of fruit varieties from region to region- and season to season in the humid regions, for that matter. Even experienced fruit growers may be reluctant to accept that their favorite child doesn’t behave so well in other places.
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Yes I agree with you i think you said it exactly. Preference comes into play as well as far as common pears go I like bosc, Bartlett aka Williams, and anjou but not everyone does. Bartlett from the store are typically not impressive but bartlett grown right is good. Your right here harrow delight is slightly better than a really good Bartlett and it’s smaller. @Olpea was that your experience? Harrow delight on my farm is like a better bartlett. Some pears hit taste buds of people differently like a person who is color blind how do you explain green? The taste of bartlett is pronounced since thats kind of what the harrow station was looking for. Bartlett and comice are what most pears are judged by. About 1 in 4 people I speak with bring up anjou which Potomac tastes much like. Regions are incredibly different @mamuang had your experience exactly Alan with Harrow delight not having the higher sugars. What’s interesting is Harrow sweet has no such regional difference we all like it regardless the region. This is typical weather in July Wichita July Weather, Average Temperature (Kansas, United States) - Weather Spark
This is August Wichita August Weather, Average Temperature (Kansas, United States) - Weather Spark
Average moisture in July and August is 4 inches each
Average Rainfall for Kansas in July - Current Results
https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Kansas/precipitation-august.php
Hot areas will always rate Harrow delight better Pyrus communis 'Harrow Delight' (Harrow Delight Pear) | North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox
" Pyrus communis ‘Harrow Delight’
Common Name(s):
Phonetic Spelling
PY-russ kom-YOO-nis
Description
This is a high-quality hybrid pear tree (Old Home x ‘Early Sweet’) x ‘Bartlett’ with an early bearing character. It is very resistant to Blight and Pear Scab.
Although The Harrow Delight Pear tree is a heavy fruit bearing tree, it will take 2 to 3 years before your young tree will begin to produce fruits. Its highest fruit production will occur every 2 years.
Proper placement of this tree can have a bearing on its successful fruit production. Avoid low-lying areas where cold pockets of air can form. A spot receiving full sun is required during the growing season in order for the fruits to succeed.
When ripening is left to occur naturally, the fruits will not ripen evenly. Remove the fruit from the tree before they are fully ripened and allow to ripen in storage for 5 to 7 days. If they are left on the tree until they are soft to the touch, they will become a soft brown gritty mush.
For the best production of fruits, prune your tree on an annual basis. For the highest quality fruits, thin your tree in late spring or early summer. The white flesh is juicy and sweet.
Propagation is typically accomplished by grafting, using a clonal rootstock, that is one that is produced from the same type of tree you are attempting to duplicate.
Insects, Diseases, and Other Plant Problems: The most serious pear disease is fireblight. Insect issues can include leaf rollers, blister mites, aphids, caterpillars, and scale insects. Powdery mildew is also an issue."
Another warmer area with a similar report
" This pear is bred for fireblight resistance. It also has great scab resistance, but it is susceptible to pear psylla and moderately susceptible to pseudomonas. Extremely cold hardy, Harrow Delight will do well as low as zone 4. The tree is consistently productive, and fruit will need to be thinned for optimal size. Harrow Delight has demonstrated pollen compatibility with Bosc, Bartlett, Anjou, and Harvest Queen.
Harvested about two weeks before Bartlett, this pear is greenish-yellow with a red blush. Fruit should be picked while still green, as it has a strong tendency to drop as it ripens. Shelf life is also greatly reduced if the fruit is allowed to mature on the tree. These pears have excellent flavor. From Daniel Koeneman in Texas: “The pears are small but with an intense, complex flavor and smooth texture.”
Harrow Delight was developed by the disease-resistant breeding program that was begun by Dr. R.E.C. Layne in 1962 at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Research Centre at Ontario Canada. This work was continued by Dr. H.A. Quamme, and then Dr. F. Kappel. Other cultivars produced by the program include AC™ Harrow Crisp, AC™ Harrow Gold, and Harvest Queen.
The Fruit
Fruit Type
Category: Pear
Subcategory: European, Cold-Hardy
Fruit Uses & Storage
Uses: fresh eating, baking, canning
Storage duration: one to three months (approximate, depending on storage conditions)
Fruit Appearance
Skin color: yellow
Flesh color: cream
Fruit Origins
Parentage: Bartlett x Purdue 80-51 (Early Sweet x Old Home)
Origin: Harrow, Ontario, Canada
Introduced in: 1982
Introduced by: H. A. Quamme
The Environment
Calendar & Geography
USDA zones: 3 - 8
Chill hours: 800
Ripening date: Aug 06 (approximate, in New York State) 14 days before Bartlett
[
Tree Height & Spacing
Rootstock: OHxF 87 Rootstock
Rootstock size class: Half-Standard (75% of Standard)
Tree spacing (natural spread of tree): 18’
Good for wildlife planting? N
[
Diseases & Pests
Pear Scab : Resistant
Fireblight : Very Resistant
Pollination
[
Pollination Factors
Bloom group: 3
Is it self-fertile? N
Is it fertile? Y
Ploidy: Diploid
Rootstock size class: Half-Standard (75% of Standard)
Pollination Partners
This table shows the first few results from a full search for pollenizers of Harrow Delight Pear on OHxF 87. Please see our Pollenizer Search to run other queries and read how the application uses various factors. Also read more about fruit tree pollination.
In hotter regions the harrow delight develop the “complex flavor” mentioned above from the gentleman in Texas. Kansas grows very good summer pears. Fall pears like Duchess D’ Angoulme are hit and miss here. @alan last year was a good year for late season pears and it was an eye opener to how good they can be. Winter was delayed and we had additional ripening time.
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I’m not sure Cummins nailed it as far as psyla susceptibility. I have not noticed Delight as being as vulnerable as the many pears that require summer sprays to keep psyla in check. If they say the same for Sweet, I suspect they may be basing their description on something from Cornell academia. Such things need to be weighed against recommendations from UMO. The university of my orchard, or your orchard.
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I only have eaten Harrow Delight for a couple of years. So far, they are OK, not as good as Harrow Sweet. I wonder HD’s lesser quality here has something to do with its early ripening. Our summer here is neither long or very hot (even comparing to your zone 6 hot KS summer).
My HS has consistently be very good.
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