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I have an old pear tree of unknown variety, it is not grafted and produces pears that look a bit like a Williams. For several years I have tried to ripen them without succes. They are starting to drop now. Whar should I do with them to get them to ripen without rotting from the inside out?
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Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet -
just bring them into the warm house and they will ripen/soften in 3/4 days so just bring in a few at a time, those in the cool area/shed will stay hard til you bring them in..enjoy.. -
If they are Williams they will have begun to rot just before they fall. You can't see the rot from the outside. You need to pick from the tree as soon as the first few fall and then do as BUFFS says above. Another variety which is prone to rotting from the inside is Gorham and that looks very like a Williams.Comment
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Maybe they're a 'cooker' which may never ripen enough to eat raw.
I find pears ripen best in a sunny window. It usually only takes a few days to ripen them - and they're over-ripe/mushy inside and fermented within a couple of weeks.
It is claimed that putting a banana on top of your fruit bowl will ripen all the other fruit due to a chemical it gives off which speeds up ripening.
Try some experiments. Put some in a sunny window and put the rest (perfect fruit picked from the tree, not the bruised 'windfalls') in storage and bring a few out every couple of weeks to ripen in the window.
I seem to recall that some of the very late-keeping pears actually require a winter chill (not a hard frost though) to begin their ripening process.
Eventually you'll get an answer..Comment
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