Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: lemonstar on January 04, 2019, 16:25

Title: Hard off-white-ish gritty grains in(or under) the skins of pears; what are they?
Post by: lemonstar on January 04, 2019, 16:25

They look like bits of broken teeth and are just as hard - I only really buy Conference pears so I don't know if it is specific to that variety or not - I doubt it. I certainly want to avoid biting them as they are so hard - I've found some that are a good 2mm in size - they are quite irregular in shape.

Title: Re: Hard off-white-ish gritty grains in(or under) the skins of pears; what are they?
Post by: mumofstig on January 04, 2019, 16:52

When pears are stressed they develop more Sclereids aka stone cells, they may not do the same thing in a normal year. So fingers crossed for this year...

Title: Re: Hard off-white-ish gritty grains in(or under) the skins of pears; what are they?
Post by: jaydig on January 04, 2019, 19:18

I had this problem with my pears in 2018, I think it was the extreme heat, although I did try to keep the trees well watered at the base.  Hopefully it won't happen this year.