We just picked our pears for the year. When we first started growing them, we didn't even think about how to know when they would be ready until it was almost harvest time.
Most fruit ripens on the trees, so you don't have to necessarily think about it. Pears, however, aren't meant to ripen on the tree. Instead, they are meant to be picked when they are mature and allowed to ripen after picking. Because pears ripen from the inside out, if left too long on the tree they would be rotten by the time the outside appeared to be ripe.
How do you know when pears are ready to be picked?
Color? Depending on the variety, the coloring changes of the pears may give you an indication that harvest time is getting near. But unfortunately, this won't tell you exactly when they are ready.
Yielding and less firm? Pears will still be quite firm when harvested, so assessing firmness also won't provide an indication.
Pears are ready when you gently tilt it to a horizontal position (from its hanging vertical position) and it snaps away from the branch. In general, this will be late summer to winter, depending on your zone and what type of pears you are growing.
We live in zone 5a and grow Anjou, Bartlett, Comice, and Kieffer varieties and ours are typically ready to be harvested by the end of August.
How do you ripen pears?
Pears will typically ripen in 1 week when left at room temperature.
You do not want to refrigerate them until after they have ripened unless you are trying to slow down the ripening process. If you are, place pears that you want to ripen at a slower rate in a paper bag and store in the crisper/produce drawer of your refrigerator. This should slow down their ripening. You could also store in a root cellar/cold storage, checking weekly for signs of ripening.
If you would like to speed up the ripening process, place pears in a paper bag along with a ripe banana or apple. These are both fruits that are more prone to releasing ethylene gas which triggers the ripening process of the pears and accelerates it to just a few days.
(This information is not pertinent to Asian Pears which ripen on the trees.)
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I don't have as many pears as last year...same with the apple trees. Not sure why - we'll have to see what next spring brings. Maybe I need bees again...Thanks for the tips, it's time for me to pick the few I have and enjoy them! Hope all is well...we should be getting a break in the summer heat - it was 99 one day last week. That's just too much for me!
ReplyDeleteBummer about the pears and apples. Yes! A break from the heat is here too!!
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