My seckel are not close to ripe yet in zone 6a. They will grow in clusters like these. There are other types of seckel as well and it could well be one of them. Once you have more pictures we will be closer to solving the mystery. Once way or the other its not a big deal. Worse case scenario you graft the top of the tree to seckle and have seckle in 2 years like ours. Best case scenario its seckle , early seckle. Worden etc and maybe something better. These what they call sugar pears like seckle can go mushy right on the tree so note the date today so you pick early next time if thats the direction you go. .
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My Seckel is red and russeted while still small
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These are seckle off the same tree as i posted above. The scion wood came from corvallis. One cluster was in the shade the other in the sun. They do need to grow in clusters if they are seckle. Typically the cluster are like ive shown 2 - 4 pears growing together.
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What do you mean that they need to grow in clusters. Are you saying there will be a problem if you thin them to single fruits?
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No im saying if its a seckle they do grow in clusters but if its mislabeled they wont likely grow in clusters like seckle.
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@clarkinks
I have a few on my young tree. How do you gauge ripeness - does the top of the neck start to give a little, or?
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Yes the neck softens but the tilt test does not work well because of the size. They can soften and get over ripe on the tree quickly. They are very good just keep a close watch on them.
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Yeah, I learned the hard way that they are still quite firm when ready to eat. If you wait for them to obviously soften at the neck, they will be pithy. (edit: I meant mealy).
At least in my very limited experience.
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Yes they barely soften they are tricky to pick. By the time they change color they are mush.
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So I just went outside and picked one of those Seckels. It was firm, and crunchy as an apple as I ate it. We’re it an apple it would be the best I’ve ever eaten.
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Hi Clark:) If you have extra wood from your small yellow pear, I would love a scion as I have a ohf 84 rootstock waiting! I toured a botanical garden which used to be a pear orchard and had my eyes peeled. Will return every 2 weeks to see what I can find. Looking for fruiting seedlings. I see seckel-like colors, chinese pear crosses, etc…
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Here are some more pictures of my probably most likely not Seckle pears.
This is the graft section.
These are two of the pears I pulled off this morning. They came off easily. One is a little more yellow and mushier, the other seems like it was picked at the right time.
The two pictures above are Bartlett pears that are on the same tree. They are coming off when tilted up now.
These are Ayers pears, they look good also, The Bartlett and Ayers pears being healthy makes me think the tree is okay and that I don’t have the right Seckle pears from the graft. The graft was sent to me by I think her name is Jolene with the family tree service in Arizona or out that way so maybe she had a variety that was better for her region and is not working out here.
So, I will remove the top half of the tree and graft it over to a different Seckle.
Thanks for all the help and advice everyone.
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Yes my small yellow pear is hard to pick and doesnt keep long but the flavor is exceptional.
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Pears, delightfully in your case, will create their own following. We will serve them as we are enchanted by the glimpses of heaven that synesthetically invades our senses and emotions…
Id like to put it between mishirazu and Atago and plant its seeds
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Could Seckel be grown spray-free?
I grafted Seckel onto an aronia-franken-pear in my back yard, and I have a stick left in my fridge. I was was considering grafting the last scion onto a callery-to-pear tree at my parents’ house that currently has Harrow Sweet and Harrow Delight grafted onto it, which were chosen for their disease-resistance. The issue is that my parents live on a protected wildlife habitat (it’s an estuary/bay with a wild bird preserve island/marsh directly across), so they cannot use any garden chemicals in their yard.
In terms of location, the tree at my parents’ house is in full sun, with no other pear trees or vegetation nearby. It has lots of airflow from the southerly sea-breeze that comes through every afternoon. That being said, I only just grafted the pears on in Spring 2022, so I do not yet know what kind of diseases there might be.
Here’s some pictures, for reference, in case the location might factor into the spray-free-ability.
Easter 2023, on a rainy/cloudy day:
And when it was first grafted around Easter 2022:
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Yes seckle can in most cases be grown spray free. Like with any organic fruit you could get bad insects some years.
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Thanks so much @clarkinks ! Your advice has been invaluable in my pear growing journey 
Can I ask a follow up question?
I also have one stick left of Shenandoah pear in my fridge, and some Harvest Queen and Shipova that I had grafted last year on my franken-aronia that are leafed out and growing nicely right now.
Do you think I could or should try to graft any of my currently-available varieties (Seckel, Shenendoah, Harvest Queen, and/or Shipova) onto the spray-free-callery? Could any of the other “new” varieties be grown spray-free? Is it worth having the extra varieties at my parents’ house (i.e., do they have any unique flavors, or increased ripening times)? Or are the Harrows that I currently have on that tree good enough and I should just leave it alone?
I guess my concern is that I don’t want to add or create any disease pressure (or other issues) for the existing Harrows if the new varieties aren’t “worth it.” I think Seckel is probably “worth it,” because everyone raves about the taste, but I wasn’t sure about the others.
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Seckle is very small. They are tasty little fruits. If i was looking at buying the trees on your list i would buy both the harrows you selected and Shenendoah. They produce quickly. Seckle and harvest queen are good but may have a 5-8 year wait before they fruit. Shipova is an interspecific hybrid which is good but very susceptible to disease. Harrow sweet and harrow delight on callery will likely produce in 1-3 years. Shenendoah is larger than bartlett but the flavor is slightly off at time of picking. It is not perfect when it comes to disease which you should consider. As it sits the flavor becomes more bartlett like. Harrow sweet fruit is excellent and bartlett like. Harrow delight is very good and bartlett like. Harrows have excellent disease resistance the others are not in the same class of easy to grow pears. 25 Harrow pear varieties
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Thanks again @clarkinks ! I’m planning to visit my parents next week, so I’ll try to graft the Seckel and Shenandoah onto their tree then. Even if the Seckel takes longer to bear, I just want to see what it tastes like, and I figured it would bear faster on the full-sun callery at my parents’ house than the part-shade aronia in my back yard.
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