Do mine look like real Ayers?
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@mamuang those are ayers. They are not ripe yet even though they needed picked. Let them turn very yellow and soft inside. When they are ripe they are juicy, meting and sweet. The skin is a little course and can have occasional grit. I think you will like them. They are not likely to have internal break down like so many pears.
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Thank you, Clark. I was worried since I have a couple of mislabeled ones.
Bad news about Magness. I wrapped them in a dark window screen so it was hard to see the color change. Today, they looked like they dropped. So, opened the screen. All but one were way overripe. The last one was salvageable. Texture was smooth, melting but it was mot very sweet.
So disappointed. Two years in a row with no Magness. Squirrels last year and waiting too long this year. At least, I have some idea when Magness was supposed to ripen here, about 10 days ago.
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Very odd magness is not ripe here yet.
Mine may not be Magness. It was a graft from swapping several years ago.
The Magness pears I ate from the Cornell store last year were excellent.
I really should me more careful about swapping scionwood. After waiting for 3-4 years, finding out the varieties are not correct is very disappointing.
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@mamuang
Actually you saved me from losing my warren & magness! I checked again magness, seckel, karls favorite, warren were all ripe. Warren was the ripest so i lost half of those and seckel.
Warren wow what a flavor! Quality similar to clapps favorite but very different flavor. The highest quality pears belong in the same group!
Magness may be its sister but fell short of warren for flavor. Still high qualty!
Seckel is very delicious and very small. Belongs to the same group of high quality pears as my small yellow pear! Smaller than my small yellow pear and by far the smallest i grow.
Karls favorite is highly productive and hold well on the tree. Will let you know on flavor once the finish ripening inside
The unknown pear i discussed above in a seperate post maybe should remain unknown the flavor is ok to good but the tree is small, takes a long time to fruit, production is poor so whats to recommend? Even disease resistance is poor. Skip the unknown pear maybe next year will be better.
Remember i spent the day eating drippin honey, magness, warren, and seckel so the unknown pear was not bad just does not hold a candle to my other choices. The others are truly the best of the best. Ayers are still around being consumed as well!
A good haul of pears today! Picking 5 gallons a day regularly!
We are using this thread currently so i see no need to update this one Here comes the 2019 pear harvest!
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Clark,
You seem to eat E pears right off the trees. No need to chill them before eating?
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No need to chill seckel, ayers etc. Some are good that way right off the tree eg. Ayers. One Warren was perfect and so was one of the magness. If you pick off the tree like that it typically means you waited to long to pick and are getting losses also (over half). They are really good tree ripened like that! Drippin honey and other asian pears i eat off the tree also. I wait until a pear reaches its highest possible quality much of the time before i pick them. A day really matters when it comes to a pears flavor. We lost many pears to storms this year (last night there was another). We have such an abundance of pears and other fruits it does not matter. The windfalls are consumed by animals and they leave my fruit alone. As far as im concerned God feeds the animals. They need to eat to and we all live here in a fragile peace. Its been like this for years because i planted plenty of everything to go around.
On further evalution i think hosui was mislabeled.
Had some today that were ok but not exceptional.
The others are still ripening
The pear labeled as hosui are a smaller more translusent asian pear. Perhaps shinko? Do not like them at all.
There is a possibility ofcourse the one labeled hosui this time is milabeled!
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Man, your catfacing insects ran rampant.
My Hosui is about to ripen. It is in a shady location. Had it been in a sunny spot, it could ripen a bit earlier.
What makes you think your Hosui is mislabeled?
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@mamuang
I think that catfacing etc. Is a problem with the pear itself. They are on borrowed time and then next year if they are that bad i will top work them. None of my other pears have that issue. Picked the lasr of the late ayers pear today. They are huge! They came from the area next to the pond so they had plenty of water. Finishing picking the last of the drippin honey and they are excellent. My mothers picking grapes and hazelnuts. The animals are running around trying to figure out what to eat lol! We have water this year so its the land of plenty. The other hosuis that are labeled look and taste very different. I ate hosui at a friends a few years ago and it tastes similar and has no catfacing. The ones i ate today had no catfacing.
Still loading up on Drippin Honey
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Clark, my Hosui improved in flavor when I picked yesterday. They were much sweeter than a week back so I likely picked too early. Hosui has larger lenticles than a lot of pears resulting in rough textured skin. The flesh is also clearer and more juicy than say Korean Giant or Drippin Honey. It’s also not as hard as KG. Drippin Honey is really good right now so I guess the 2 ripen at the same in my backyard. I pick 1 or 2 to sample every few days to see when they taste best and the trees still have some left.
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Drippin Honey just keep coming! No cracks at all despite heavy rains! Delicious asian pears! There are few if any pears any better! The leaves have some rust but the fruit for the most part is perfect. Sugary, crisp, juicy, absolutely delisious! I let 20% drop in the storm last night just to make sure the majority are dead ripe! Leaving them that extra day cost me a lot of great fruit but getting the others dead ripe is worth it. The harvest is huge and im sending my mother home with enough to stuff her refrigerator also (several 5 gallon buckets). !
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Looks like improved kieffer are next to ripen and its a branch breaking harvest! I will be glad to preserve all of the main trees i can! These pears need to come off asap. Many branches have been lost this year due to a heavy load of pears and severe storms. Its a great problem to have we have been very blessed!
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I only had a few Asian pears this year, a few of each varieties.
Today alone, squirrels took down several Asian pears. I cut a couple up, they were ripe. So I picked Hosui, Kosui and 20th Century, KG was not yet ripe but a squirrel still took a big KG down.
I gotta admit Hosui and Kosui look almost identical.
From left to right. Kosui, 20th C, Hosui and KG.
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Blake’s Pride, a disease resistant variety but the taste is OK. This is the 3rd year of having the fruit. Usually, it is a medium/large pear but this year, most were small like Seckel.
Flesh was almost no grit this year but not buttery smooth. Tangy with mild sweetness. Brix was 14. I grafted it over to many other varieties.
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@mamuang Nice pears! How are your Duchess D’ Angoulme doing? Are they still hanging on the tree getting bigger?
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Yup, a bit bigger but still not that big. Still hanging. Tried lifting them. Nothing came off. My mother pear tree (Blake’s Pride) doesnot get full sun, unfortunately.
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The Duchess still needs another 1-3 months to ripen depending on your growing conditions. Now it will be getting most of the nutrients so the pears may still get large.
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