For the third year in a row, every one of my Seckel pears has rotted at about this time. They just go to mush while hanging on the tree. This was a graft I put on a Bartlett pear, which has grown great, just doesn’t make a good pear. The Bartletts also are not great with lots of little black dots all over them. I think I’m going to pull the tree and plant a Harrow Sweet.
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Jim,
Are you sure your Seckel is true to label. I am a zone colder and pick my Seckel in early Sept.
I do have one small pear that ripened very early (last week) for my zone. This is the 2nd year that all pears of this variety rotted from inside out. All of them.
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I’m not sure. It was a graft from @joleneakamama maybe four or five years ago. I totally trust her, so I think so.? It seems strange that both the “seckel” and the bartlett that are the same tree seem to have the same problem with lots of little black imperfections, which then rot before they go ripe. So far the Ayer pear on the same tree has not done this yet, but this is the first year that graft has set fruit. Also this issue doesn’t seem to be on the three other pear trees.
This is all because earlier in the season, I said pears were the easiest for me to grow and you agreed. Nature smacking me in the face.
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Smack us, not just you 
Sometimes, mislabeling is my own doing. The correct scion was sent to me but I grafted many at the same time. I have mixed labels after grafting more than once.
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My Seckel was bought from Starks as a Harrow Sweet. It wasn’t, but it’s not a disappointment.
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Pears are by far the most mislabeled fruit but I don’t know why.
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Both of my seckel trees are loaded. Love seckel. If you let it hang on the tree it becomes tooth rotting sweet. Also has it’s own unique pear flavor. Only comice is better.
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To me, any Euro pears, if you let them hang too long on the trees, they will suffer internal rot.
To me, the challenges for Euro pears are:
when to pick them
Do they need refrigeration
If so, how long
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I let some of the seckel ripen on the tree to get that super sugar, but you are right many will rot if not timed right. I’m still struggling with the picking on all the varieties. Seems to change every year. I just kind of go by the brown stem and tilt test. Of course the bees will also let you know.
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That’s one of the benefits of Seckel, it can ripen on the tree without rotting in the middle
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I’ve never been able to time the picking of Seckel
The squirrels have been tearing all the fruit of my Seckel for the past 2 weeks…
I rarely get more than a few that they miss.
The past 3 years the poor tree seems badly hit by rust…
Scott
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My two Seckel grafts set a lot of fruit last year. This year, there were only a few cluster of flowers on one branch but none on the other. I thinned them down to 4 pears.
I have seen more rust as late as last week on my pears, too. There are other things going on as some leaves turned brown (in the pic). The issue is not big enough for me to be worried yet.
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My seckel has more of a russet color than all of yours. Starting to wonder about my mine. Maybe another version of seckel.
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Seckel is another pear we always have to wonder about. The market has 100 small sugar pears all claiming to be seckel that are not. This tree appears to be the real seckel. That is a big problem with pears since so many are mislabeled. There are also legitimate pears that have part of the name dropped over time like “early seckle” or “Worden seckle” but they are not seckle. The photos below show various differences from the usda Corvallis
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The seckel i have growing looks exactly like Mamuangs picture above. It does not look like yours clark.
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Same here
Mike
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Clark,
Your Seckel in post # 42 looked like Seckel.
Your pear in post #114 didn’t look like Seckel at all.
Maybe, you posted a wrong pic?
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Believe it or not they are the same tree. Both posts are accurate. This photo is seckle fruit in its infancy fruitlet stage. The scion wood came from Corvallis so I’m very sure the photos are seckle.
The latest photo is seckle when it’s ripe. I will try to get additional photos. They look very different. This seckle tree is growing in partial shade on the outside of a main orchard. The tree stays very small in comparison with others so it must be grown on the outside to keep it alive. I have another seckle that has not produced in years but did fruit regularly for 2 years. The soil is heavy clay in these locations.
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