Fresh fruit doesn't have a long shelf life, but with proper storage, you can keep it from going bad too soon. Avoid washing the fruits until just before you plan to use them; the moistness can encourage mold growth and rot. If fruit starts to get too ripe, consider freezing it. Berries, cherries, bananas and other fruits can be frozen for up to a year. But your best bet is to prevent over-ripening in the first place
Here's how to keep fruit fresh:
Fruit: apples
How to store: in plastic bag in fridge
Lasts up to: 6 weeks
Fruit: apricots
How to store: in paper bag at room temperature to ripen; then in fridge
Lasts up to: 1 week in fridge
Fruit: bananas
How to store: hang on banana hanger in coolest part of kitchen
Lasts up to: 1 week
Fruit: berries
How to store: put in glass bowl lined with paper towels in fridge
Lasts up to: 4 days
Fruit: cherries
How to store: place in covered container in fridge
Lasts up to: 2 weeks
Fruit: citrus
How to store: in fridge
Lasts up to: 2 weeks
Fruit: kiwi
How to store: store at room temperature until ripe; then in fridge
Lasts up to: 3 weeks
Fruit: mangos
How to store: store at room temperature until ripe; then in fridge's crisper
Lasts up to: 4 days in fridge
Fruit: melons
How to store: in fridge away from vegetables
Lasts up to: 4 days
Fruit: nectarines
How to store: in paper bag at room temperature until ripe; then in fridge
Lasts up to: 1 week
Fruit: peaches
How to store: in paper bag at room temperature until ripe, thin in fridge
Lasts up to: 1 week
Fruit: pomegranates
How to store: in fridge
Lasts up to: 2 months
These fruits are picked at ripening, so don’t expect them to get juicier or sweeter after you bring them home: berries, cherries, citrus, grapes, pineapple, watermelon
These fruits are picked before ripening, and will get juicier in your kitchen: Apricots, blueberries, figs, melons (except watermelon), nectarines, passionfruit, peaches, persimmons
These fruits should get sweeter when you bring them home: apples, kiwi, mangos, papayas, pears
Pears have to be picked before they are soft and allowed to soften/ripen on the counter. On the farm in Iowa they were stored in the fruit cellar for several weeks to ripen after picking before the first frost. Actually, a pear is at perfection for only 20 minutes.
All pear trees require a pollinator tree. To be a pollinator, the blossoms must be open at the same time and the pollen must be compatible with the pear tree producing the fruit.
Pear tree varieties open their flowers at different times from each other. For example, the European pear variety called Hood has blossoms that open quite a bit earlier than Bartlett pear. Hood will not pollinate Bartlett and vice versa because the flowers are not open at the same time. Just having another pear in the vicinity is not enough and you cannot assume that any old pear trees will pollinate each other.
The majority of pear tree pollination results from the activities of bees. If there are no bees present or if the weather was cold or overcast during the time the flowers were open, it is possible that bees were not active and no pollination occurred. If there are no other pear blossoms open at the time your tree is flowering, pollination will not occur.
Also, the tree must be old enough to bear fruit. In some older and less precocious varieties this could take as many as six or more years. Fruit bearing requires that the tree have fruit-bearing spurs. If this pear tree has blossoms on it, it probably has fruit spurs.
If this pear tree has blossoms that open very early in the season like the Hood, it is possible to lose the fruit due to late freezes. This would have been the case during the last couple of years in the valley's outlying areas. This spring, however, we did not have any late freezes after about mid-March. I hope this helps with your trees. I went searching online to see if there was any info I could come up with.
Thank you for the information.
Regards
Andrew
Leave a Comment