North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[derry&bill <wchase@interchange.ubc.ca>]

Washington State U has a flyer 'When to Pick Pears' and they give picking 
dates
for Western Washington for most years (two dates: one for south and one for 
north
of WA).

The handout says "every few days as you approach the harvest period listed, 
give
the pears the 'lift test'. Putting your index finger on the stem, lift the 
pear
from the normal vertical orientation to a horizontal position perhaps with a
slight twist. If the fruit 'snaps' off cleanly between the stem and the twig, 
the
pears are ready to strip from the tree. If you have to wrench off the fruit 
either
breaking the twig or the fruit stem, the fruit is probably not ready. On 
larger
trees, fruit growing in the top often ripens earlier than fruit growing in the
shaded interior.
Certian late-ripening pears (Anjou, Bosc, Comice) may not ripen properly if 
just
picked off the tree and allowed to ripen naturally. These varieties, 
particularly
Anjou, need 3-4 weeks of storage at 32-45°F. Some kind of wrapping is good to
reduce shrivelling.

Asian pears ripen on the tree. When they taste good, pick them."

Derry

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Derry Walsh & Bill Chase
wchase@interchange.ubc.ca
Aldergrove,  B. C.,  Canada
phone/fax (604) 856-9316
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Home web page  http://www.interchange.ubc.ca/wchase/HTML
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