When is a Pear Ready to Pick?

My Pear’s are nearly ready to be picked. They should be ready in late August or early September and I know that I should really pick them when they are unripe and ripen them indoors for the best results. The trick is knowing when to harvest them, even though they are still unripe.

Here are a few tips that I’ve found useful:

  • If the Pear is difficult to pull of the tree, it isn’t ready.
  • Cup the Pear in your hand and give it a light squeeze, if the flesh is slightly springy then it’s ready. If it’s rock-hard then it’s not ready.
  • If you see other fruits dropping from the tree it’s likely that the fruits still on the tree are ready.
  • If your Pears have changed colour from green to lighter green or even yellow (depending on variety) this is another sign that they may be ready to pick.

Pick a Pear by grasping the fruit and twisting or rolling it to make the stem pull away from the branch. You want the stem still intact.

Happy harvesting!

Category: Growing Fruit     Tagged:

9 Comments on “When is a Pear Ready to Pick?”

  1. Hi MTP,

    Slightly further north than you in Cheltenham and my Williams pears have already gone golden and begun to drop – very early, but then it’s been a weird year for lots of crops!

    Frantically rummaging around now for my pear chutney recipe, and I’ve also found a recipe for pear and lemon jam (courtesy of Cottage Smallholder’s blog) that should use up the rest of the bumper harvest nicely.

  2. for most apples and pears, all the above are great indicators, but if you want to take them off the tree ripe, cup the fruit, and give it a half turn, – if it doesn’t fall off it isn’t fully ripe. My apple tree harvests between now and October, – not all of them are ripe at the same time, so I work out where the tree gets the most sun, and start on that side

  4. What a lovely photo. I can just imagine eating that pear, I like to eat them slightly under ripe and that looks perfect.
    Kay x

  6. My pears are not quite ready yet. Not very many this year – must be the dry weather.

  7. My pears are *just* there – in Newbury however that compares. Not sure what variety is it but they taste good and I was thinking is inventing a chutney with the skanky ones!
    NS

  9. Hi Unwanted – it’s a Comice Pear tree. I have a Conference Pear tree too but it hasn’t fruited yet.