Dallas Fruit and Vegetable Grower

Harvesting Pears

When is the best time to harvest pears?

In growing fruit, one of the things that has been a learning process fo rme has been identifying when the optimal time is to harvest my fruit.  There are different rules for different fruit.

Every year, I learn something new or accomplish something different, and this year, I am most excited about my pear harvest.

In Texas, and the South in general, our pears and apples can be vulnerable to fire blight.  Consequently, I do not grow European pears which are particularly vulnerable to fire blight.  I currently am growing fireblight resistant hybrid varieties such as Orient, Warren, Monterrey,  Moonglow, Pineapple, Kieffer, Seckle, and Magness.

When determining ripeness and harvesting pears, the books and experts suggest that you look at the color of the lenticels, the small pores in the skin, to turn from white to brown.  They also suggest that you feel for a little give in the skin.  When both of these occur, the pear should be mature and will ripen off the tree.

Frankly, I think determining ripeness from skin or lenticel color on a pear is pretty tough, and I don't think I am experienced enough to easily use that method.

Personally,I think one of the best indicators for me in determining ripeness is by lifting a fruit up toward the sky from the bottom in an arcing fashion (with the stem being the pivot point) to see how much give there is with the stem.  If it can come off easily from the stem, it should be ripe.  When harvesting, you should be able to lift the fruit upward and off -- don't twist or pull. If it doesn't come off easily from the stem, you should wait.

I kept an eye for fruit on the ground to determine when I needed to start watching the fruit more closely.  Our squirrels are very aggressive, however, so the mere fact that a pear is on the ground does not  necessarily mean the fruit is ripe in my garden.

Don't expect the fruit to be soft.  European pears are best ripened off the tree, so they don't become mealy.  They ripen from the core, out.  (In contrast, asian pears are ripened on the tree.)

Once harvested, I immediately chilled the fruit in my refrigerator.  After 2 weeks, I would select fruit as needed and leave it on the counter for 2 or 3 days for it to soften and get juicy.  It was perfect!

While keeping the pears in the refrigerator, I have been able to consume the harvest for a period of approximately six weeks.  After the pears were in the fridge for four weeks, I could eat them really almost immediately or after only a day on the counter.  After six weeks, I am getting near the end of my harvest.  I am not sure how long these fruit will remain edible, but I suspect another 2 to 4 weeks.

Summer Fruit: Peaches, Figs & Pears

The summer brought a bounty of fruit this year.

Early summer started with a good crop of blackberries.  The blackberries usually ripen in June and with three varieties, produce for three or four weeks.

Our blueberries produced a modest crop.  I had to replace approximately a third of the bushes last fall because of the heat and drought of the previous two years that had taken their toll.  I removed the drip lines that irrigated the blueberry bushes and replaced them with pop-up spray heads.  The drip lines were not reliably getting adequate moisture to the plants.  As a result of the spray heads, the bushes have done much better this year through the summer heat.

We had only a small plum harvest this year.  From seven trees, I probably only harvested 15 - 20 fruit.  There were several more on the trees, but the varmits got to them.  We had a huge crop of plums last year, and I think that caused the trees to take this year off to recuperate.

We will not get many apples this year.  The varmits really go after our apples.  They got almost all of the early ripening fruit.  However, I did harvest a couple of beautiful, small, red Williams Pride apples, which is a very early season variety.

Nevertheless, our peach crop was enormous.  That is the benefit of having a lot of different kinds of fruit trees and bushes.  Invariably, each year, certain fruits just will not produce anything.  As disappointing as that may be if you have some favorites, you are  almost guaranteed to be successful with other fruits in that same year if you have several kinds of fruit growing.

Whereas the plums were our banner "crop" last year, the peaches won the prize this year.

We have five mature peach trees and two  young trees.  The five mature trees really put on a show.  

The Jefferson, Springold, and Ranger trees are very vulnerable to varmits because the varmits can get to them easily without being seen or exposed.  Consequently, the birds, squirrels, and possums are fat this year from eating so many peaches.  However, the Sentinel and Redhaven are more exposed, and we were able to harvest the majority of their peaches before any animals got to them. 

The peaches ripened four weeks later than they have in prior years.   Dallas had late freezes this year in late March and early April, and I think this caused the later harvest.

 

The two photographs above are of the Sentinel tree.  You can see the branches weighted down by the fruit.  I  probably should have thinned the fruit earlier in the year, but I did not do it because I did not know how much of the fruit would be shared with with critters.  If we get this big of a harvest next year, I will thin the trees more. 

 

The photographs above and below are of the Redhaven tree.  One of the main branches really bowed under the weight of the fruit.  I also suspect that the weight of a climbing possum caused it to bow even more.

The photograph below really shows how prolific the trees were. 

I tend to harvest the fruit when they give a little to touch.  The Sentinel peaches below had less red blush than the Redhaven. 

 

 

Our fig trees were also very prolific.  We have five fig trees, but only two of them are very mature.  The nursery mislabelled the two mature trees, but as I have mentioned in the past, I think they are Lattarula/Italian Honey figs.  They ripened over a three to four week period in July.  When ripe, they get bright yellow and have an amber interior.  They are very sweet.  Some of them weep a milky liquid when picked, as you can see with a couple of them in the photograph below. 

 

We also had a very large pear crop.  It was a crop of impressive, huge pears.

We have four mature Orient, Warren, Monterrey, and Moonglow trees.  We also have four young Pineapple, Kieffer, Seckle, and Magness trees.

The Warren, Monterrey, and Moonglow all produced only a few  fruit, but the Orient tree was the real star of the summer.  It probably produced about fifty 10-14 ounce fruit, some of which are in the photographs below.

As with planting a lot of different types of fruit, you also benefit from planting several varieties of the same type of fruit.  In addition to helping with pollination, you never know which tree is going to have a good year.  If you increase the number of varieties in your "orchard", you increase your chances of success. 

 

 

 

Spring 2013

Here is a view of the vegetable and fruit garden in late Spring 2013.  It has been a beautiful Spring with plenty of late, cold days that have kept the Spring greens from bolting too soon.

The perimeter of the vegetable garden is lined with peach trees, pear trees, and pineapple guava bushes.

 

Here is a closer look at one of the peach trees that is in its fourth year in the ground.  It's trunk is probably four inches in diameter, and it is about 14 feet in height.

It has been a very productive tree.  In the photograph above, you can see several of the young immature fruit.   In the vegetable garden, we have five peach trees.

Several of our pineapple guava bushes are in their fourth year and are really filling out.  This bush here is approximately five feet in height.  Last year -- their 3rd year in the ground -- was the first year that we had any fruit, but the fruit was not plentiful.

This year, the bushes are covered in flowers such as the one above.  We should be getting a lot of fruit this year if all of the flowers are successfully pollinated.

Here is a photo of the ripened fruit from 2012.  Each fully ripened fruit was about the size of a chicken egg.  They had a mild and unique taste that seemed to have a combination of mint, pineapple, and strawberry.

In the background of this photograph, you can see the Royal Lee and Minnie Royal low chill cherry trees that are less than one year old.  These trees are growing like crazy.  They did not blossom very much this Spring, and I do not expect any fruit from them.

Behind the fence, you can see some plum trees that are approximately four years old.

Edible Landscape at Taos Hotel

 

On our way out to Colorado this summer, we stayed at a very nice hotel in Taos called the El Monte Sagrado Hotel.

The grounds of this hotel are beautifully landscaped.  As an added bonus, the grounds contain an edible landscape of fruiting trees. 

 

 

As you walk on  the paths throughout the grounds, you see a lovely landscape of native plants.

 

 But as you closely approach the various trees scattered throughout the grounds, you notice that they are all edible fruit trees.

 

 

Several varieties of apple trees were filled with nicely shaped apples

 

There were also a number of pear trees that had not been thinned and were overwhelmed with small pears.

 

 

 

In the photo below, you can see a nicely shaped Russian Olive that had small, immature fruit on it.

 

 

 

There were several small trees with dainty red, cherry-like berries on them.  I am not entirely sure what these were; however, I strongly suspect that they are Juneberries, also known as saskatoons.  It was too late in the year for them to be cherries.

 

 

 

 

There were also one or two peach trees that were also filled with fruit.

 

 

I was impressed with how well taken care of all the trees were.  There was no sign of pest or leaf damage on any of the trees.  The fruit was also in beautiful condition.  

Elderberries

Our elderberry bushes bloomed in early May this year.  As these bushes gain in maturity, they continue to get larger and produce more bracts of flowers.

This year was the best yet. 

 The flowers ripened into small purple berries in late June and early July.  However, only a small percentage of the flowers became berries.  I attribute this condition to poor pollination.   I don't think the poor pollination was attibutable to a lack of bees and/or moths because we have plenty of pollinators flying around.  Elderberries require cross pollination, and I have planted two types of elderberries: Johns and Adams.  I suspect that the Adams, which is placed well behind the Johns in the shade, may not be getting the attention of the pollinators that is needed for cross pollination, but this is speculation on my part.  I may try to plant another Adams nearby to see if this will rectify the issue.

Here is what these partially pollinated berry bracts look like:

Che - New Fruit in the Garden

I am excited that we are finally getting fruit from our 2 Che bushes.  We planted these plants 2 years ago.

The fruit in the photograph above are immature, and they will ripen into a reddish, maroon fruit. Here is a link to a great photo of mature fruit - photo.

I first read about the Che in Lee Reich's book Uncommon Fruit for Every Garden, which is a great resource if you have not read it.  Reich describes the fruit taste as a combination of fresh fig and mulberry, but not as rich as fig or as sweet as the mulberry.

When I was looking for my plants, I did  not find many mail-order nurseries that carried the Che.  I purchased mine from Edible Landscaping.   This nursery grafts the tree onto Osage orange to prevent suckering.  Here is how Edible Landscaping describes the tree and fruit: "Bears splendid crop of lovely red fruit clusters over the entire tree.  A center of attention at ripening time. Fully ripe fruits are juicy, sweet, very pleasant and fig-like in taste. Birds don't bother the fruits. Completely seedless and self fertile, does not need a male pollinator. Makes great "fig" preserves. Space 14' circle . . . Che on its own roots can sucker . . . Che in China are also called the 'Silkworm tree'. Like the mulberry Che's leaves are the primary food for silkworm . . . Che trees are rounded small trees probably 25' high and the same width if left to grow for about 30 years . . . Placement of the tree should be in the open or along side of small trees like Filberts or Apples . . . they ripen in late September or October. We have noticed fruit on the male too . . . It seems the male only sets sparsely if at all."

There has been some online discussion as to whether the che, in fact, needs a male pollinator. While there has been some disagreement, the general consensus is that you do not need a pollinator.  In planting a young Che, however, you need to make sure you are planting a female plant - not a male.

My plants have a bush-like form and do not want to grow straight up with a leader.  Rather, they want to produce arching branches.  The branches have very large 2 inch thorns, but the thorns are not prolific and can be navigated around without impaling yourself.  The fruit seem to grow at the base  of new branch or leaf growth -- in the axils  of leaves on growing shoots.

I have crammed my two plants into a small area that is approximately 10 feet by 6 feet.  The space is in partial shade, so we will see how that affects fruit production.  I would not mind growing these plants in a bush-like shape because I have other fruit trees growing behind them.  

Here are few sites/posts with additional information on the che:  California Rare Fruit Growers; NAFEX post.

A really great article by Lee Reich can be read here: Che: Chewy Dollops of Maroon Sweetness

Onions in 2012

We had a really successful onion harvest this year.

The photograph above is of half of our crop curing after we had harvested them.

In total, we had approximately 90 onion bulbs.  Most of them are 11 to 12 inches in diameter -- the size of a softball.

I planted seeds in October of 2011, and those onions were ready to harvest in June.  However, despite our mild winter, the bulbs were fairly small and the germination rate was very low.

I also planted a 5' x 16' bed in January with onion starts from the nursery.  These starts did great and were the source of our harvest of oversized onions.

This was my most successful year, yet.  Last year was also very good, but my onions were significantly larger this year.   I am not certain what to attribute this success too, but I will venture a guess anyway.  If I had to bet, I would attribute the success to the fact that: I continue to build the fertility of our soil, I provided ample moisture as the plants matured, the plants had lots of sunlight, and there were no really hard freezes during the spring.

Here is a photograph of the onion bed in late March:

I harvested the onions in early May and let them cure on my covered patio for 2 or 3 weeks.  I could not let them cure in the beds because we were having a lot of rain.

Here is nice article on growing onions in Texas: Softball Sized Onions.

On another note, my garlic bed was a total failure this year.  I did not get the bed planted until January, and it was just too late . . . a complete failure.  I should have gotten the beds prepared and planted in October or November.

Garden varmits - why I dislike squirrels

One of the best tools for the gardener and fruit grower is an automated Crittercam that is motion triggered and will take photographs during the day and night.

This tool allows you to know what is devouring your produce and, accordingly, how to combat it.

This year, the squirrels have been particularly tough in my garden.  They started on my plums which I did not really mind because I had so many of them.  However, they also devastated my peach crop.

Now that my plums, peaches, and tomatoes are finished, it appears that they are going after everything else in our garden.  I have been finding butternut squash, tomatoes, and figs laying around our garden.  I wasn't sure what was getting them, e.g. possums, birds, squirrels, mice, etc., so I put out my crittercam and learned that a couple of squirrels are the culprits along with a few Carolina wrens that have taken up residence in the vegetable garden.

 

2 squirrels inspecting a butternut squash

squirrel hanging upside down eating fig

Carolina wren in foreground

June Harvest From The Vegetable Garden

 

June was a very productive month for our garden.  We had good  production from our plum trees, blackberry bushes, peach trees, and tomato plants.

I am particularly proud of our tomato harvest this year.

My favorite fruit or vegetable to grow is the tomato.  In my mind, nothing tastes better than a sun ripened fresh tomato sliced and seasoned with a bit of salt or in a BLT sandwich.  The taste has the biggest payoff versus store tomatoes bought because most store bought tomatoes cannot compete in taste or, if you buy expensive heirlooms at Whole Foods, they aren't always in the best shape after shipping.

But I have struggled the last three years growing tomatoes.  Either the varmits got to them before I did, the plants were stunted, or the plants just did not produce much fruit.

That changed this year.  We had so many tomatoes this year that I didn't know what to do with them all.   I think that I can attribute this year's success to a few factors.  First, I got the seedlings in the ground very early in the Spring.   (I did not have time this winter to grow tomatoes from seed so I had to buy seedlings from the nursery).  Second, I think I am finally, really building up my soil quality.  Last winter, I added a significant amount of homemade vermicompost to particular areas of the tomato beds, and I saw much better production from the plants where the heaviest amount of vermicompost had been added.  Third, I irrigated a lot more this year.  Last year, I used small drip hoses to irrigate the tomatoes, but I transitioned back to pop-up sprayers this year.  The pop-up sprayers put out a lot more water, and I think this was a signficant aid to the plants.  The drip hoses just were not putting out enough water over a consistent area.  (For my Fall tomatoes, I am going to use individual mini-spray heads for each plant to try and reduce the amount of spray that gets on the foliage and, consequently, late season blight or wilt.)  Fourth, our plum and peach trees were ripening throughout June, and the varmits targetted the fruit instead of our tomatoes.  Finally, I planted several hybrid varieties that really produced well for me.  SuperFantastic produced a great number of huge beautiful, perfect, tasty tomatoes.  I will be growing SuperFantastic again to see if I can repeat my success.  I also had good success with Green Zebra, but I do not prefer the taste of Green Zebra and will not be growing it again.  Maybe if I fried green tomatoes more often, I would have a greater appreciation for this variety.

Here are a few more photos of our vegetable garden in June:

 

In the bed above, we have zuchini, buttercup squash, and cucumbers growing.

 

 

In the bed on the left, you can see our Swiss Chard, butternut squash, and sweet corn growing.  On the right is a bed with eggplant and tomatoes.  The two trees in the background are peach trees.

 

 

In the bed on the right, we have okra growing in the foreground and artichokes behind them.  I also have watermelon seedlings beginng to sprout in this bed along with some beets still left over from the winter.  On the left, you can see several of our cucumber cages.  The trees in the background are fig trees.

 

Here is a close-up of the artichoke flower heads.

 

Peaches in 2012

We have been eating peaches from our garden for the last two weeks.

The peaches above are from our Redhaven tree.

In our back yard vegetable garden, we have five peach trees that were planted in 2009.  They are Springold, Sentinel, Ranger, Red Haven, Jefferson.

The Sentinel and Redhaven have been producing ripe fruit over the last two weeks, and they look like they will continue to ripen additional fruit over the next week or two.   I have decided to harvest based on feel, harvesting fruit that is soft to the touch with a red blush.

I would have liked to allow them to ripen longer on the trees, but we have a pack of squirrel banditos that have been eating about 20 peaches a day.  This has been very discouraging watching our a beautiful, bountiful harvest die a death of squirrel attritition.  I have ended up harvesting a lot of fruit early just to ensure that we get our fair share.  In the process, I am certain that I am sacrificing additional sweetness.  Nevertheless, I am still enjoing them greatly.  

The Jefferson fruit continues to ripen, and I have yet to taste any of its fruit.  I am fairly certain, however, that the squirrels will get to that crop before I do given that they do not appear to have the same patience as me and have not waited for the fruit to ripen before digging in.  

Here is the ripening time information that I found on Springold, Sentinel, Ranger, Red Haven, Jefferson:

Variety	Fruit size	Stone*	Ripe date	Planting zone
Yellow Flesh
Springold	small	cling	mid-May	1, 2, 3, 4
Sentinel	large	semi-cling	early June	1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Ranger	large	free	mid to late June	1, 2, 3
Redhaven			mid-July	2, 3, 4, 5
Jefferson	large	free	mid to late July	1, 2, 3, 4

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/homefruit/stone/stone.html

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/peach/peach.html

My initial reaction to this is that Redhaven was about two to three weeks earlier this year.  Although the squirrels got to all of these, my Springold and Ranger were still ripening as of June 30th -- later than suggested by this chart.  Sentinel ripened in late June, early August this year versus the early June suggested by the chart.  Some of the variation may result from the fact that ripening times may vary from year to year based upon the last frost date, and also from the fact that this chart may have been prepared for the Houston or Austin areas which have an earlier last-frost date.

We also have  Saturn and Reliance trees that are two year old trees.  They set a amount of fruit earlier in the year. Unfortunately, those two trees are in our front yard and also particularly vulnerable to squirrels.  The squirrels got to all of them.