How do I know when to harvest Asian pears?

allenwrench · Intermediate Crude Joined: Apr 23, 2008 Posts: 893

strider3700

I waited until mine went a nice tan brown color on the tree last year. Turns out they may have been a bit over ripe. Best damn Asian pears I've ever had but I doubt they would have stored or canned up very well.
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Windmills

My parents have a couple types of Asian pear trees. I don't mean to be silly, but I guess you harvest them when they taste good! They'll all ripen within a couple weeks of each other. However, they also will stay on the tree for several more weeks. You'll have a large window of opportunity to do some picking, as will the birds and wasps.

allenwrench · Intermediate Crude Joined: Apr 23, 2008 Posts: 893

Thanks

I'm in Z6 - what months do you pick your Asian pears and what zone are you in?

Comparing all the fruit trees, my Asian pears seem to be the healthiest and least disease prone. Is that what you found?

Should one load up on Asian pear trees as main staple? My main trees are apples, but they are disease prone as hell.

Ludi

strider3700

I'm zone 7B something loves chewing on my asian pear tree. I've never found what does it though. I also have one of those 5 in one trees and have noticed only some of the types get chewed on.
_________________
shame on us, doomed from the start
god have mercy on our dirty little hearts

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1420

I've also found pears to do very well with very little input once they're established. Disease and pest free. Heck, I know people who never do anything to their pears. They just pick them every year.

FWIW, Ludi, the Arkansas Black is the apple that is grown in the orchard near my home. That orchard has been around for years and years. I picked apples from it when I was a kid and I'm 41. It was well established even back then. Anyway, I recommend those apples as being particularly disease resistant - and, the bonus, they are GREAT canning apples. Almost as crispy as granny smiths, and just as sweet as any sweet apple you like. They're yummy fresh or canned.
Kathy

Ludi

Good to know, Kathy! Smile

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Gothor · Tar Sands Joined: Apr 14, 2008 Posts: 89

basil_hayden

allenwrench · Intermediate Crude Joined: Apr 23, 2008 Posts: 893

allenwrench · Intermediate Crude Joined: Apr 23, 2008 Posts: 893

mercurygirl · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jan 29, 2006 Posts: 1286

I have one Asian pear, zone 8. I don't know what kind it is, when ripe it's yellow with speckles, about tennis ball size (might be bigger if I thinned them). They're ripe in September usually when they've lost all greenish color. Then they hold a long time on the tree and in cold storage. I think if you keep some stem on them, they'd last well in a cool place, which I haven't tried.

Gothor · Tar Sands Joined: Apr 14, 2008 Posts: 89