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Harvesting of pears & almonds
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Posted by Halinka Victoria (My Page) on Wed, Nov 9, 05 at 5:38
| Our pear tree is loaded with little pears and we are looking forward to sampling a few this year. Last season I tried to beat the birds so picked some and brought them inside to ripen but they remained green and slowly decomposed?? If I leave them to ripen on the tree, the birds will eat them (I've tried plastic snakes, foil, etc. to no avail. It's too high to net.) I buy them in the shops hard and green and they ripen okay inside - anyone know the secret? The Almond tree is a similar story. Cockatoos know it's here and make one fell swoop and they're pretty well all gone. How does one know when an almond is ready to harvest and when is the best time to do this and does anyone have a good bird deterrent? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Harvesting of pears & almonds
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| Can't help much but the link below might help. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Almonds
RE: Harvesting of pears & almonds
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| Thanks Ray. It was a very useful site. All I have to do now is outwit the birds! |
RE: Harvesting of pears & almonds
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| Hi Halinka I read this on the US site a while back. You pick pears when they have reached full size and there is a slight give when pressed on the neck of the fruit. After picking them you store them in the fridge for 2 to 3 weeks and then take them out to ripen on the bench voila Helen |
RE: Harvesting of pears & almonds
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| Thanks Helen, you are a gem! I may get some pears after all. The tree is quite large and laden with fruit but those pesky little birds peck holes in the fruit unless I harvest as early as possible. Have you got any good ideas to discourage birds? Ciao, Halina (real name) |
RE: Harvesting of pears & almonds
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| Hi halina I use netting to keep the birds off, but they are resourceful and will notice any hole in the netting and get to the fruit.
On my morello cherry tree, I used two layes of netting to keep the birds off. So far so good! ciao helen |
RE: Harvesting of pears & almonds
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Hi Helen,
Thanks for the advice. My trees are very large and will be difficult to net but I have decided to prune them severely after this crop so that I can net them in future. Just hope severe pruning will not cause any long term problems. I expect to get a poor crop the following year but I don't get many at the moment anyway. Thanks again.
Ciao Halina |
RE: Harvesting of pears & almonds
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| Halinka, with big fruit trees, we just net one section that is easy to reach. This still gives us plenty of fruit. Maybe you could try that as well? Just put bird netting on branches with fruit that you can reach. :) |
RE: Harvesting of pears & almonds
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Spatzbear, you're a genius! Thanks loads. Such a simple solution and I never thought of it. Rather nice to share with the birds as well.
Ciao Halina |
RE: Harvesting of pears & almonds
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Hi Halina
I never prune my trees (well occasionally with a chainsaw) and my theory is that the birds do not like to get too low to the ground where they are pronew to attack and will remain high in the tree if fruit is available there....thus leaving the low fruit (and that that is easy to pick for the tree owner (planter)
this works well with very large trees but may not work so well with medium trees (those in the process of becoming large)
It is wonderful to have such large trees and have the birds making there noises in the trees....and getting fruit too
another theory I have in favour of this method is....the birds keep the insect population down as well...after all they have a stake in the tree now too
cheers
Peter |
RE: Harvesting of pears & almonds
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You're right, Peter, birds are a wonderful asset and I do like them a great deal. It's nice to feel I'm producing fruit that I can share with them, only trouble is they don't want to share with us! They leave their little pecking holes in most of the fruit, which means it is spoiled and I can't pick it to finish ripening inside. I thought the compromise of netting part of the tree was a good idea and have now purchased a net, which I will put up this weekend. Thanks for your interest.
Halina |
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