Harrow Sweet.
I started off with a heavy bloom and a heavy fruit set. I was thinking that I would have to do some serious thinning. Then so many of the small fruit dropped until they were spaced out and it looked like there wouldn’t be many fruit to harvest. As they started to grow I realized that my two years in the soil tree knew what it needed to do. The fruit are pretty big and looks good to me now.
10 Likes
Mine did the exact same thing. Perfectly spaced out naturally. Looks like your bags are working well. I did not bag my HS and have had only one rotter so far.
Mine are starting to look ripe. They are still firm but not rock hard when I checked this evening. I did the lift test and they all held on. Any tips for picking that variety? Are yours getting close? I think I picked around early Oct last year but I only had a couple.
2 Likes
I checked a few this morning and they are still firm but I don’t think that it will be long before they start to ripen. The lift test for me works sometimes but I have started checking for a little softening at the stem end. I still guess wrong on several of the pears.
1 Like
After picking do you put them on the counter until they get a melting texture or do you store them in the fridge first? I just picked a few. One had some rot on the bottom. It was very sweet but I ate it crunchy because I figured it would rot out by the time it softened up to eat.
1 Like
I’m not good at ripening pears. I’m pretty sure Harrow Sweet is a pear that can taste good right off the tree and that’s what I’m trying to do. Wish I could give better advice but I’m just not good at this. I’m hoping that this year using the soft stem check will help.
I grafted several of my trees over to HS for that reason. Ayers will do it too.
I switched to the stem test myself. The tilt test is unreliable.
2 Likes
Currently I have five pear trees planted. I have a limited amount of space so if I plant more something else will need to be eliminated. One tree is entirely grafted to Harrow Sweet, One has a combination of Dripping Honey/Korean Giant. I will probably convert one more to the Dripping Honey/Korean Giant. These three varieties tend to fruit early and have a great taste. Although Harrow Delight has been slow to fruit for me I think it can fill an earlier ripening slot so I will probably add a few more limbs of it. I have several limbs of different varieties that have been slow to fruit so I’m hesitant to add more of these.
1 Like
Can’t tell for sure. Do you have one or two holes in each bag for condensation?
1 Like
I have tried several opening on bags for pears. These bag have are cut completely across the bottom seam. This is a test so I don’t know how it will work out in the long term.
The bags stay open on the bottom now that the pears are larger. They tend to close up when they are small.
Thanks!
1 Like