Yes, exactly, picked at the right time! Or not picked at all - I ate most of mine after they fell on the ground.
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I have to beat squirrels to my pears 
. Nothing would be left for me if fruit were on the ground.
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Tippy,
Got any “tips” for picking Harrow Sweet at the right time? I’ve had problems picking them too early. Do you use the usual 90 degree tilt as your approach?
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Mamuang,
That’s a very nice looking Harrow Sweet. I do feel like they need a vigorous rootstock due to their fruiting tendencies. @alan has told me for a long time harrow sweet was one of his favorites and I can definitely see why. Will it survive the kind of fireblight pressure we get in Kansas remains to be seen.
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Matt,
I wait for the color to turn first. It will go from medium green to light green and then pale yellow. Then, I do the lift test.
@clarkinks, when I bought the tree, I just wanted a semi dwarf as I prefer a short tree. So glad I did not go with 87 for this location.
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Mamuang,
As your aware most Asian pears do the same thing and will start producing quickly and runt a tree out. I’m starting to put Asian pears on Harbin rootstock and I love that rootstock! I would not use harbin under a European pear because of pear decline. BET rootstock is probably a really good choice for some early over producing pears but ive never seen a nursery use it for that purpose. There are nurseries such as St. Lawrence that sell on harbin due to the rootstock being able to handle colder temperatures. I’m working on using a few different rootstocks now for Charles Harris pears. Due to it’s reportedly large pear size I’m growing it on both callery and harbin. I’ve read pears can reach 3 pounds each Anyone else trying Charles Harris Asian Pear?
After all these years, I still struggle every season with the right time to harvest for all my varieties, besides Seckel. It seems to me that even ripe pears often don’t snap cleanly when lifted. I know it is time to pick at least some of them from a tree when they start dropping, but some varieties may be over- ripe and core rotting by then. With Seckels, you can actually wait until then and harvest all of them, eating the more colored ones first and storing the rest. Harrow Sweet has been relatively easy by waiting for the color change, as you mention.
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Matt and mamuang: lift test ? 90 degree tilt? Explain pls! 
Would you say it had a melting flesh or is it more firm
See minute marker 5:00 for the tilt test explained:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JMWRrYOfR6A
@mamuang-- Thanks for mentioning the yellowing of Harrow Sweet. @alan-- Thanks for corroborating Tippy’s findings.
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I do the same lifting test with apples, too. It helps.
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Clark,
Thanks for info. I have already order five OHxF 87. I really want shorter trees. I don’t mind not havinpg a full production. It is for my family consumption.
Not having to climb a ladder or using a pole to get to fruit is my preference.
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If I didn’t need to keep fruit above the deer I could keep the branches at picking height with 97 or most any pear rootstock, especially pears that are most determined to fruit, like Harrow Sweet, Bartlett and all the Asians I’ve tried growing. With less precocious varieties, the problem would be all the tying down of wood.
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I have read about your tying down limb strategy for a couple of years now and this spring ( after I had already cut all of the vertical shoots out) I was looking at my peach tree and I think I finally understood what you are doing and what it does to the tree.
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Mamuang,
87 are a great choice but I would hold it back a year and pull the flower buds to get more vegetative growth. I think 333 would be a bad choice for harrow sweet due to my experience with the early fruiting HS and the rootstock 333 which induces early fruiting. In my location in heavy clay you could wind up witha 4’ tree instead of 8’ dwarf tree.
Still waiting for my newly planted HS to break dormancy. It’s almost May. We’ve had it plenty of rain and temps in 80’s. I have a feeling this pear is not going to wake up for me. 
When did you planted it?
My Harrow Sweet leafed out a little later than most of my pears except for the Korean Giant (2-3 weeks later). The tree might get a late start due to just being transplanted. I would just water as needed and hope for the best. Pear trees are tough and it probably will start growing soon. Good luck with it, Bill
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Pears suffer from transplant shock more than any other species I grow, and I’ve had pears seem dead that leafed out a month or more later than other trees moved at the same time. Of course, sometimes the shock can kill them, although it usually doesn’t happen with a 1-year tree. They are the only species in my nursery that I can’t transplant larger trees bare root- I have to maintain a rootball that includes soil. Their roots do not hold onto soil well as there isn’t enough fiber, as is the case with most difficult to transplant species, like persimmons.
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Mamuang: I planted it on April 3rd.
Auburn and Alan: Ok I’ll just sit tight and hope it wakes up. Scratch test comes up green. It looks very healthy otherwise.
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