Pear Harvest Winding Down

The 2014 pear harvest is doing the slow wind down. Washington State Horticulture Association's Bruce Grim.

GRIM: The Bartlett harvest is just about winding down her in the Wenatchee district. Some of the upper Wenatchee River Valley areas are probably finishing up today, tomorrow. Something like that and it appears that the Bartlett crop is probably going to pick pretty much to estimate. Fruit size is running generally in the 70 through 100 range. Not many small ones and that's to be expected because generally growers in this area are growing strictly for the fresh market and they do an awfully good job of thinning to make sure they get the fruit size they need.

As for Anjou's.

GRIM: The Anjou harvest is probably just about to get under way. We had a Washington Pear Marketing Association meeting on Tuesday and there was some concern expressed about labor availability. Gala's are being harvested as we speak but certainly most pickers would rather pick Gala's or other apples as opposed to picking pears.

Some growers were getting started picking a bit earlier than normal due to the concern over labor availability.

GRIM: Anjou's will definitely fall short of last year in terms of overall production. Fruit size appears to be good. Te crop is exceedingly clean. We're hearing the same thing out of the Hood River area. It's been a season with little to no frost, good post bloom goring conditions and good summer conditions. Pear tend to like the heat so they have done reasonably well.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.