Harrow delight is the first pear to ripen this year on August 1st. Nice pears absolutely delicious when grown in this hot climate. Looking back pears seldom ripen in the same order. I’ve been documenting many varities closely since 2015. I’ve grown pears most of my life in some capacity but learned the importance of good record keeping about 6 years ago. Photos and data are imperative to growing fruit well.
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I think age has something to do with it as well. Five of my pear trees fruited for the first time this year. All are smaller and lagging behind my old pear trees.
They did not mess around on their first fruit either. Each has about 30-40 fruit.
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I picked some Moonglow and Ayers today. Just the ones that let go easy. They are a little hard may be a bit early but at least they won’t be deer dinner. They are sweet.
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Deer? My property looks like a ballerina with all the deer on their hind legs trying to steal.
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On Saturday, at dusk, I noticed that my one enormous Aunt Rachel was a beautiful striped red. I thought I’d give it one more day before testing it’s ‘hold’ on the tree. I thought to go inside and grab my phone - take a picture. Too lazy.
On Sunday - I looked at the tree from a good distance and did not see any red. Uh Oh. Walked over. NO APPLE. “Someone” beat me to it. DARN!
We put more wire on the King David nearby. It’s apples are turning red, too . . . and we tried one before adding more fortress. Tart and firm - but juicy! Not real juicy - but juicy enough. Would make a good pie apple right now. I pulled 2 more. Will let the others ‘cook’ for a bit longer.
I intended to set up my game camera nearby to see if the culprit would return for a Sunday night dinner, but I was too pooped and didn’t feel like dealing with mosquitos.
@mamuang , seeds were dark! Thanks for that information about white vs dark seeds.
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My Harrow Delight scion fruited for the first time. The fruit is smaller than golf balls! Not what I expected when I grafted this on. I’ll be asking for Harrow Delight scion again.
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Thats not what I expect either. I have a bunch of trees now so I can get you some if you remind me.
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Picked Clapps favorite today August 6th. If there is a better pear I do not know of it. Produces good crops, delicious flavor. The one downside it has is its not very fire blight disease resistant.
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August 7th the small yellow pear 
I grow is ripening today. My mother is picking a large amount. They must be pretty healthy for us since she is in her 80s and still going strong. We have a good amount of mature trees and they sure do make life easier as inflation has made everything expensive.
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I just picked a smaller Shinsui from the tree this evening. It was turning a deeper brown and the stem had turned the same color too. It didn’t come off too easily, but was very sweet with a vanilla like aroma. I’ll take pics of the remaining fruit later. Most of them look days away from harvest. It seems a little earlier than what’s reported by AC nursery which is local to me. However, this summer has been very hot which may have helped hasten the ripening.
What great news to be able to enjoy juicy, cold Asian pears in the heat of summer. They make for a refreshing treat.
Pictures added of fruit on the tree. I picked more on 8/8/21. They are a softer pear, very sweet, and very juicy. I did not thin this one very much because I was greedy. There weren’t many flower clusters on it and a freeze at the beginning of April damaged some of the flowers. The ones that are growing well spaced out look like they’ll end up being a decent size at around 3 inches in diameter.
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Clark,
I guess I need to graft Clapp’s but the family will not eat pears until the peaches, plums, and pluots are finished. And actually, we had a good apricot year (one about every 10 years). I did have a couple of Kalle on a small graft. Looks like you had some late frost - “nice” frost rings.
So, the first pear that is enjoyed by the family is the Magness/Warren/Jana’s Pear triad. Those taste almost the same according to several blind taste tests by independent tasters. I think they will start ripening in a week or two Local Bartletts are starting to drop and they are showing up at the local produce stores.
I posted photos of some of my early pears a few days ago.
Yesterday I started picking Vavilov and Orcas. They look really good - I’ll post pics later.
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My Clapps Favorite seem to be bug magnets. My Luscious have frost rings this year. I just finished picking my Summercrisps. They are only the size of large plums this year with the drought. I freeze the Summercrisps without peeling them. They make great pear crisp. The peelings just seem to melt away in it. Now to figure out when to pick the Flemish Beauties. Things seem early this year from the hot weather earlier in the summer.
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Clarke, it looks like frost rings on those Clapps. Do they affect the insides of the pears any? This is my first year with frost rings on my unpicked Luscious pears.
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@mayhaw9999
Let me know if you need some scions
@northwoodswis4
Frost rings don’t hurt the flavor at all if anything a slightly damaged skin is believed to make fruits and vegetables taste better. The pears have been exceptional this year. We don’t eat them or pick them all we do out best.
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Yes, a scion would be nice. I’ll follow up this winter.
Here are photos of my two latest picks. They are both quite good.
Vavilov is from the Corvallis Repository. Joseph Postman, the recently retired pear curator at the Repository published his Curator’s Choice list. Vavilov is on his list as Rousselet of Stuttgart x Dr. Jules Guyot No. VII = PI 337446. This has been given the name Vavilov as the plant came from that Russian breeding program as is the best of several selections sent in 1968.
Orcass is from Orcas Island, Washington State,! and is another nice pear ripening just a little after Bartlett. I have seen this listed by several people and in at least one book as Orca - that is the killer whale!
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Do Vavilov and Orcas ripen on the tree or do they need to spend some time in cold storage?
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They are best picked when they release easily and ripened on the kitchen counter for a few days. Actually, if you like them crunchy you can eat them immediately. I think the Orcas tastes a little better with a week in the refer before ripening for a few days. This is only my second year fruiting Vavilov so I don’t have much experience with it yet. So far I have picked 5 pears and put them in the refrigerator. There are another six that did not release easily left on the tree. I’ll try to remember to give more follow-up when I taste them.
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I picked all the apples off my Yellow Transparent tree, a couple days ago, and today I picked all I could reach on another unknown variety tree. The second tree is sort of a bitter “spitter” that drops its’ fruit on the day before it ripens, so I just decided to pick them all off before they fall off, and before they are fully ripe. Got about seven bushels from the Transparent, from which I am planning to make some apple butter, and some juice. The apples from the other tree and remaining Transparent apples I am going to grind and press to make cider–even though the expert cider-maker, Jolicoeur, says Transparent trees are “garbage.” I do have some other unknown variety trees that I’ve made some darn good cider with, but they won’t be ready for picking for another three or four weeks…and so I will ferment what I have when I have it, and then blend them later before bottle-conditioning, right? 
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The first of my pears. The ones with all the black spots are Bartlett. The other two are unknown from a mislabeled tree. I’m going to put these in the fridge for a bit.
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