North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["tanis cuff" <tanistanis@hotmail.com>]

I tried a ripening experiment on a Barlett-type tree (sorry, I don't know 
the true name) which just refuses to have any storage life.  Group 1 was 
near-yellow pears which had fallen and the yellows which fell into my hand 
from the branch,  group 2 was green but decent-looking pears which had 
fallen, group 3 was the 'perfect' batch-- harvested just as color started to 
fade from green.  All got ripened in average-to-dry cool basement.  Group 1 
was more likely to spoil from skin breaks, but had the slowest core 
breakdown!



----Original Message Follows----
From: william Eggers <
To: North American Fruit Explorers <>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Pear question
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 09:53:48 -0700 (PDT)

We may be doing this wrong, but for European pears, we wait until they just 
start turning a light green and then pick all of them and store them until 
they are ripe.  If you wait for them to get ripe on the tree, they will all 
fall off before they get ripe.  I have Asian pear trees planted, but none 
are old enough to bear yet. so don't know much about picking them yet.


Lucky Pittman <> wrote:

Here's a response I'd saved, from Ed Fackler, to a similar question,
back on 14 Aug 2002:

"Most all European pears (exception is the new Green Jade),
require post picking chill to properly mature. Or, when fruit
exhibit slight color changes, begin to test pressure (using your
thumb) near the stem. When there is a slight "give", pick all
the fruit, store at or near 35 degrees for 7 or more days. Then
you can remove them as needed, allow them to sit at room temps
for 2-4 days which allows them to ripen to peak flavor.
Years ago, I got a letter from an older NAFEX fellow who told
me that European types were very difficult to ripen due to varietal
quirks or requirements in post harvest handling. He said "Ed, if you live
long enough to learn how to properly ripen 10 varieties, you'll be
lucky". I'm still
working on it!!!"

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