The squirrels won’t last long here. We have hawks, eagles, owls, coyotes, bobcats, etc. that all hunt squirrels. I have one squirrel and he does not eat my fruit. The raccoons eat what’s on the ground though about 5 years ago during the drought they were desperate and ate about 100 pears in a tree I did not pick. Everything was desperate for food and water that year and my ponds were very high traffic areas. Since that time my neighbors saw my ponds and put in 4-5 more ponds that are as large or larger than mine. Since there is more water in the area now it’s taken that animal pressure off of me in the summer and spread it out some. Chances are the animals in your area are desperate for food and water. In the cities around here the squirrels are so bad they will actually eat bark off trees at one of my friends house. I would trap them if they did that to my trees.
The 2016 improved Kieffer pear harvest are about 15% ripe now. The pears are safely stored in cardboard boxes inside while they finish ripening. The harvest was excellent with both the animals and my family being very satisfied. When I picked the pears I left the animals the windfalls. Below are a few pictures of the ripe fruits. It’s unusual but the quality of the fruit is good this year. On rainy years or years that lack heat improved Kieffer is bland. The pear is very sweet this year but still lacks that deep pear flavor found in higher quality pears such as Comice. We had a very hot summer so the pear is at it’s very best which is similar to a grocery store Bartlett. The area around the core is grainy but the outer flesh is completely free of grit with exception of wounded areas which are very gritty. These are our cooking pears and are very valuable to us for that purpose. With high quality pears such as drippin honey in storage these pears are a hard sell to family for fresh eating. My mother is making some into pear nectar and pear honey and no doubt I will dry a large number for use this winter. My apologies again for leaning heavy towards pears but they are primarily what I grow.
Duchess are a very late season pear so they continue to take a beating from the insects and wildlife. This damage shown below is from a new type of insect to me. If you look closely you will see the insect in the picture which is a brown colored small bug on the bottom of the pear that’s similar to a weavel. These pears are very sweet so as stated it’s very hard to ripen an already sweet pear more on the tree! They are all huge pears!
This was the smallest duchess I picked so far so I weighed it. I was shocked it still weighed a pound! The largest was about 20% larger than this one. Remember there are less than a dozen pears on this tree so if it yields 12 pounds of fruit that would be fantastic!
Drippin honey are keeping nicely in cold storage in the crisper. There are small fruits and large fruits from the Drippin Honey harvest. A nice Drippin honey’ is close to a pound. I suspect Duchess will be the same when the tree is carrying a lot of pears. Not all of them can be big ones on a mature tree. I’m relieved to see the Duchess in production already.
I picked my Kieffers about a week ago, they were highly russeted this year and relatively small
Although they’re coloring up in storage, I see the skins shriveling with dessication - this is unusual for them
I was planning to can a batch of these, but I’m thinking now it won’t be worth it
Ltilton,
The Kieffer might still turn out fine. The old timers canned some green but they tasted fine when I ate them. Can’t wait to get the last of these duchess off the trees!
@clarkinks, have you grown Maxine pears? We got some of them at the orchard, and canned 10lb worth this week. I like them because they have very little grit, slightly sweet and firm. We tried some Magness, and they were more sweet, but also soft textured. Both of us preferred the firmer Maxine. I was maybe even considering adding a Max tree to our orchard next year. If you’ve grown them, how do they do production, and disease wise?
My goodness! What a beautiful fruit. It’s probably not fire blight resistant enough for South Georgia, but they are beauties.
subdood_ky_z6b,
I’m growing Maxine pears but they have not produced yet. They have been disease free so far. This maxine tree is 7’ tall so maybe I can tell you in the next year or two how they will do for us. My experience is limited on them.
coolmantoole,
Duchess pears are very disease resistant so you might be able to grow them as easy as kieffer.
Just ate my last Seckel - it was sweet and juicy, but not all of them were
Pears are so tricky!
Checked the Kieffers - they’re full of rot, I’m throwing the lot out
Awful year for rot here
Other people have mentioned kieffer rotting instead of ripening this year. I don’t understand why rot was so high this year.
We had gawdawful humidity all thru August
The Kieffer tree is next to the prune plum, which was totally wiped out by rot - normal enough on the plums, but I’ve never seen it like that on pears
Wonder if we have a new rot out there. Everyone seems to have had worse rot this year which does not really add up.
It looked like brown rot on the surface - which I’ve never seen on pears
I have seen rot in my A pears every year but not that many to get me upset. Rot from bug damage is understandable. Rot from the core is frustrating.
Our Luscious pear tree at home here was so heavily laden the branches were nearly breaking. The deer wiped out the pears and leaves that hung over the circular enclosing fence.Then we left for the weekend to attend a wedding. Nary a pear left when we returned, and the top of the tree was broken. Time to dig out the coon trap! I don’t know if it was coons or squirrels, but they are now both on my hit list. There must have been a bushel or more of pears on that tree. Fortunately, I have pears in the fridge from my Clapp’s Favorite yet. Meanwhile, I have 95 mousetraps set out on my rural property where I have apples and berries. Have caught about 20 critters there so far.
I’ve had raccoons break out the top of a tree before. Sure sounds like something they would do.