Here comes the 2016 apple and Pear harvest!

ltilton,
I used a very small amount 1-2 tsp per 2 gallons of water and applied it as a foliar spray. In my case I had some big problems so a person could likely get by with a lot less who did not have those big problems. I used the roach powder because that is what I could find at the time. I have 20 mule team now and plan to use it from now on.

Clark,
This was a strange year for me due to the extremely early hot weather. Here are the ripened Asian pears: Shinseiki, Shinko. Mishirasu, and Chojuro. The Squirrels, Raccoons, Hornets, and Japanese beetles are having a hay days also.

Tony

1 Like

Tony,
A bunch of my fall fruit ripened early here. Since we did not have much of a winter I think the trees are confused. What’s strange is some of my fruits are early and others are later than normal. The aronia’s look like they are nearly ripe.

1 Like

Thanks

There is apparently a definite risk in using even slightly too much, but of course the box doesn’t say!

1 Like

ltilton,
Soil tests should be performed. I think you will find this article fascinating http://www.tfrec.wsu.edu/horticulture/nutspray.html. Many of the orchard problems frequently reported are caused by boron deficiency. This is an interesting article on Walnut trees response to foliar sprays as it relates to vegetative and reproductive growth Ashspublications.org. If boron is applied this year it will benefit next springs crop http://oregonstate.edu/dept/kbrec/sites/default/files/documents/crops/foliar_fert_news_n_notes.pdf

1 Like

Glad to see the pear harvest winding down. It’s been a great year for fruit. This is the last big crop of the year. Improved Kieffer are a great canning pear. Production will be better in the future. We do have another dozen or two pears that will ripen up later and some crab apples. Lost a 5 gallon bucket or more to drops from the high winds last night and today. Have a feeling we wont miss them. Always like to leave some windfalls and a few on the trees for the animals to eat.

















12 Likes

WOW! That is mind boggling!

2 Likes

Mrsg47,
Thank you! Remember these are the same pears that underwent that severe cold this spring Strange weather - Will it get our blooms and fruit? - #188 by clarkinks. You can see some of these kieffers are wearing the marks from that cold weather. That’s what that russeting is you can see on some of them. Improved Kieffer’s normally are not russetted much at all like some of these are. Some were completely russeted like potatoes. They are usually a glossy green pear with some red on them. Getting any fruit at all was very fortunate. These were the blooms of this improved kieffer on March 27th.

1 Like

Picked my remaining seventeen Orient pears today. If I’m lucky next year I will need additional cold storage for my fruit. All my other pears are ripening early. A gentle lift up of my Seckel pears and they separated. My remaining pears on my trees consist of about fifteen Kieffers and they appear to be ripening at least a little early. Pleased with my pear harvest this year and a little sad to see the empty trees.

Edit. I also have about four unpicked Moonglow and four unpicked unknown Asian pears.

2 Likes

Bill,
Glad to read you had a great harvest! 2016 was a roller coaster ride in fruit growing and farming in general. It rained during hay season and froze during the full bloom. We were blessed with good fortune but unfortunately many areas were not so lucky. I suspect the cicada damage of 2015 effected the 2016 fruit crop either for better or worse 17 year cicada's woke up hungry. Damaged branches brought many small trees into production and they had a few pears on them this year. That same damage likely cost pears and apples on the larger trees. Glad I won’t see them again for 17 years! The price of fruit will only increase as the volatility of the weather from El Niño and it’s after effects fade into memories. Like it always is here this time of year my water table has dropped a couple of feet and we hope the fall rains are plentiful. I have not checked the honey bees except from the outside for at least a month. If you get a chance I would love to see pictures of your pears. Pears certainly must be the most undervalued fruit throughout the history of the world. People in this area are shocked when they taste a homegrown pear because most have only eaten what are called pears at the grocery store. There is no comparison and after their first bite of a pear like drippin honey they never see pears the same. Can you Imagine if everyone grew a Seckel like yours out back?

2 Likes

After seeing all those big containers of pears you are getting my pears seem a little underwhelming. A good year on my scale is enough for my house and my two daughters/grands to have fresh pears for a month or two. Next year I would like to be able to have enough to give some to my neighbors and also freeze some. I will post a few pictures tomorrow.

2 Likes

Bill,
Many of these trees are mature and production picks up a lot in years 9-12. The majority of these pears came from about the same number of pear trees you have they are just a little more mature. Pears don’t hurry when it comes to producing fruit. Wait a few years Bill and I hope to have some better pictures to show you. I have an equal number coming into production within 1 - 4 years as those I picked from this year. As your trees get older they will produce like crazy! Good fortune is always a factor in growing fruit so even though I did my part this year that’s not why I got fruit. Surprising those improved kieffers made a good crop. These are the little fruitlets covered with frost rings from those mid 20 degree nights this spring. Almost had an empty bucket to show you :0)

2 Likes

Nice harvest Clark! You might have to change your name to Pearinks… I have never seen so many pears like you have harvested this year. How many bushels, pounds, however you measure them, do you think you’ve had this year in pears? Are you going to can all of those? If not, will you be able to make a little $$ off of the extra? What would say is your best tasting, most productive and most disease resistant varieties?

3 Likes

We dry them, can them, freeze them, put them in cold storage using a variety of methods. I lose track of how many there are but I would guess about 12 five gallon buckets of pears this year. I did not have extras to sell this year. My family on average each use several pears per day. As my new trees get older I might have enough to sell in the next 2-10 years. My pears are my retirement plan. I hope to get good enough at growing them that when I retire they will provide an income. In this area it took me a long time to learn to properly grow them. I need to find better varieties if I hope to achieve that goal of being a commercial orchardist. ARS Grin - Corvallis was not shipping scions this last year due to a virus problem so many pears I wanted to evaluate this year had to be put on hold. Did not have enough variety of scions to graft to my rootstocks. I was fortunate to get what scions and rootstocks I did. The blazing hot sun and strong storms further set me back. This year I moved ahead but definitely not at a pace to meet my goal. Pears take 10 years to grow into something extremely productive so 10 years from now I’m short of my goal. I tried to counter that by planting 100 ohxf333 rootstocks. My theories on properly growing pears have potential. My preliminary test results from my pear planting seem positive. Drippin’ Honey is the best overall cultivar of pear I grow. Unfortunately it is trademarked and patented so it cannot be reproduced or grafted. It looks like My pear harvest was successful this year but the quarantine on rootstocks and scions set me back at least a year. I made the best of the circumstances but will never become a successful commercial orchardist doing what I did this year. I’m hopeful that duchess will be as good as I suspect and produce heavy yields. When Corvallis offers scion wood I will test several new varieties and hope to get back on track.

2 Likes

Thanks @clarkinks for posting such inspiring eye-candy.

1 Like

Justanne,
Two - five years from now I hope to show you significantly more pear eye candy. Thanks to the t-bud tricks @fruitnut showed me I can correct my grafting failures the same year now. Some of my new baby trees are nearing their production years. On the heals of those are several I top worked this year using some new pear grafting tricks I learned the hard way. There are several varieties of pears that are very compatible with most rootstocks. I’m getting better at disease treatment which should increase production. There are other things I could do to increase production I don’t do for my own personal reasons and beliefs. A net could be put a few feet off the ground to catch windfalls as they fall similar to a cherry picker like they use in California that wraps around the bottom of the tree before they shake it. I believe some of the crops should be left behind intentionally for animals and other things that need them. Every pear tree has something about it that’s unique and learning how to work with them can be a challenge. Duchess as an example has very large pears and very brittle wood which can be a recipe for disaster. Clara frijs , ayers , and Seckel have very small fruit that’s reportedly very sweet. Kieffer has course fruits but the yields are heavy. Drippin Honey has very sweet fruit that attracts fruit thieves. Learning the traits of the pears I believe are the key to growing them successfully.

I like the picking tool you use. I have used a coffee can with a vee cut into the tin or even a milk jug with the top cut off. I just taped it to my swimming pool rod. It extends to twelve feet, it works great! I like the looks of yours with the rake on top. I can see how that would work great. Thanks for sharing your harvest pictures. Your fruit looks assume!

2 Likes

Johnnysapples,
Thanks for bringing up the fruit picker I did not think about it. If anyone is needing the fruit picker here is the basket without the pole https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CZ4J6Y/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A25DVOZOPBFMAN and here is with the pole https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002S8BRSQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER. Those hooks are like fingers at the top of the picker and can really help to pick fruit. I use the telescoping pole on the tool to pick my tallest trees. The pole reduces down to 8’ which is tall enough to pick my Asian pears.

2 Likes

This is a sample of my pears this season. Heavy on the Orient side. I picked a few Kieffer today to prevent limbs from breaking. The Kieffer separated easily when lifted up so they might be ripening early as several others are.





4 Likes

Bill,
Those look great! Nice variety of pears! Those ayers and seckle look like they would be sugar sweet! Orient and Kieffer are great producers!

1 Like