Here comes the 2019 pear harvest!

Some of my Harrowsweet pears seem to be starting to change from green to yellow and may be ripening. I’m in 7A and think I remember the few I got last year ripening in mid September. At this rate they’ll be for by end of August. Does that seem likely?

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@zendog
Yes its all based on weather at my location. Sun exposure ripens fruit faster than anything else. Insects actually help me in a way because the few fruits they get tell me the others are nearly ripe.

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Should I be looking for a color change in these Drippin Honey? They are already awful large and are ballooning up more with all the rain, but the one I knocked off a week ago didn’t have dark colored seeds yet. I’m in the Northeast.

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They will taste much better with a light yellow skin. Only if you can keep the tree rats at bay.

Tony

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All kinds of rodents went after my pears, both Asian and Euro. The last three Shiseiki fell off yesterday. Fortunately, I found them before rodents did. Seeds were not yet dark yet but better it!s I who got the fruit than those rodents.

@PharmerDrewee Not sure how long have your fruit trees produced fruit for you. It took rodents a few years to find my fruit trees and they never leave.

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This is my first year with this tree producing so I don’t have any reference to go off of. The rodents come every year, but I’m not very friendly to them so they just kind of “disappear.” It’s the birds that drive me nuts. I finally outproduced what they can eat in terms of berries this year.
@tonyOmahaz5 I will look for that yellow color. There is one that partially russeted unlike all the others.

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Here is the photo from Gurneys’s of Drippin Honey. I didn’t take a photo last year of my fruits.

Tony

image

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I’m in zone 7b and some of my HS are getting a little yellow. I didn’t get a good grip on their ripening time last year. I don’t have a huge amount but I do have enough to start taste testing soon.

I was checking out my Orient pear tree, to see if the two fruit were still on it. They were, and I ended up doing the bend up the pear to see if it breaks off, which means it may be ripe trick. Well, it did, but it seems kinda firm.

For those of y’all on here who grow Orient, like @Auburn, and anyone else, is this the right harvest time? It’s still pretty firm, does it need to soften a bit, or is it a normally hard pear? I thought it’d look more like an Asian pear than a Euro, considering its name and lineage.

Here is some pics of it, a nice specimen, about 7oz, and good shape. It’s the first pear we’ve ever picked, so a bit excited.

After looking online at some pics of Orient pears, mine doesn’t look like those pics. It almost looks like a Kiefer.

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My Drippin’ Honey were never that yellow. More like pale green than yellow.

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Mine too but if you leave them hang for a long time on the tree and real ripe then they will get a darker yellow.

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Mine would either cracked ( most cracking- prone variety I have) or stolen by critters if I let them hang that long :smile:

20th century also cracks easily.

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It doesn’t look like my Orient. The one you have does have more of a Kieffer look. Orient starts off small at the upper section and gets fat at the bottom. My Orient are normally ripening now. The link below
has a pretty good picture of Orient.

https://www.willisorchards.com/product/orient-pear-tree#.XVnXBzfYrnE

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@PharmerDrewee Dont necessarily go just by color. Tilt the pear up 45 degrees and when it breaks off in your hand they are ripe.

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Well, I hope it’s not, I specifically did not want one when I ordered my trees 3 years ago. Say it is though, is this the right time to harvest a Kieffer?

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I’m not as certain about Kieffers ripening time. Apparently there is Kieffer and Improved Kieffer. Frost got most of my Kieffer this year but the ones remaining need more hanging time. @clarkinks might be able to provide more accurate Kieffer ripening time.

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Both improved kieffer and drippin honey can be seen here Here comes the 2016 apple and Pear harvest! on this thread from a few years ago. Improved Kieffer are typically more fat and squat than that. Kieffer are much later ripening than this. Here is what improved kieffer look like.

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Clara frijs are improving in flavor and texture when picked from different trees. Dripping, perfect melting texture, sugary, more true pear flavor! Good pears indeed but not the very best so far Clapps favorite was most of my family and friends favorite. You can see the sweeter juicier texture of this clara frijs! Cant wait for next year because Clara frijs will only get better!

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Ayers is a good pear and there are plenty of them ripening this time of year on August 23rd. Ayers does well here. We pick them as time permits so the animals will get their share. You can ripen or nearly ripen these on the tree! Dripping and juicy with very high sugar makes these a pear i really like. I have way to many of these trees!



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Clark, your killing me! You keep adding varieties I want to try out on my Franken pear. I think I will have 4 sites available to graft onto next spring. At the moment I’m thinking Warren, Clapp’s, and maybe your little green pear. For the fourth I have been waffling on Ayer’s and when you add pics like this is puts be back to the “add” side. I’m eager to see how Abbe Fetel does for you too, I really am tempted to get that one going. If it can survive 5b and ripen it’s fruit, even on odd years it would be worth it…so good, and enormous. Did you get any fruit set on AF this year?

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