Yes it seems Harrow delight is that pear where climate really does matter and Harrow sweet climate doesn’t matter.
Most of the sweetest pears, even Asian pears, ripen later in the northeast. Seckel is the first one with high sugar, but it is small so that probably helps. The same has some relevance with apples- with later apples tending to be the ones with richer and more complex flavor. Traditional summer apples tend to be foamy, tart and not complex. Sansa is amazing in its ability to achieve very high sugar early, but it’s not that early.
It is interesting because the higher brix of fruit is also dependent on warm sunny days in the 2-3 weeks preceding harvest- something that occurs with more warmth and length in August than Sept or Oct. But pomes tend to function more efficiently in cooler weather than stonefruit. Stomates close sooner from excessive heat, I assume. Closed stomata can produce no sugar.
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How does Harrow Delight rank compared to Ayers?
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It is not easy to say as there are several factors to the taste including geographical locations, sun exposure, trees’s maturity, personal taste, etc.
I don’t have Ayers and HD long enough to judge them. HD is bigger than Ayers, though.
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I converted a few trees to Harrow Delight and Harrow Sweet this year. Was going to do two more and think I will take your and everyones advice. More Harrow Sweet.
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I have tasted several Euro pears, I like several of them. Do you have others besides HD and HS?
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About 30 euros. There was a label mistake on six trees I bought a few years back. I’m just converting a couple of the tag mix over to things I don’t have.
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30 varieties or 30 trees? Either way, that is impressive.
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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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