It may go as low as 22 tomorrow here and I will likely pick my Jonagold and Baldwin. I’ll leave Goldrush and Pink Lady on their trees. It probably won’t be cold enough to hurt any of them but the first two are about ready anyway, if they are a bit green they’ll store better.
I think it will be 30, may 28 tonight here in PA and lower tomorrow. I will pick them today, only a few. that is it for this year. thanks Alan
Went out and checked mine (it fell below freezing here also last night), so far, don’t seem hurt by it. Tonight is supposed to be much colder though.
I picked one yesterday to see how close it may have been to being ripe, It was juicy (maybe better described as “wet”) with nice texture, but the flavor was horrid and it certainly fit Fackler’s description as “battery acid”. They look beautiful, both the apples and the foliage are still pristine.
I wonder if the freezing temps (even if not damaging the apples) may shut down any further ripening process? One thing that is abundantly clear to me…this apple requires a far longer season than I have. It snowed here yesterday, yet this apple needs 3+ weeks yet.
The freezing won’t shut down ripening. The primary factor will be temperatures going forward. Some warm days and they’ll continue to ripen. Eventually you’ll need to harvest and let them continue to ripen in storage. They do ripen in storage at 30 something so will faster on the tree if it’s warmer outside. The advantage of being on the tree is packing in a little more sugar/starch that will make them sweeter. In storage acid will drop and starch will convert to sugar making them taste much sweeter.
Apple leaves are very frost resistant so that part will continue to function for a while.
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Jeff,
Maybe they will mellow and sweeten up in storage. Thanks for sharing your experience. I have a pair of Goldrush apples still hanging under similar circumstances. I will pick them as soon as I can get up there again…
Oops. I wrote the previous message before reading Steve’s sage advice. So maybe I’ll let my apples hang quite a bit longer…
It may get down to 21 tonight here but the Goldrush and Pink Ladies are staying put. A little frost never heart any apple I’m trying to ripen. As FN says, if the tree still has decent foliage the apples will continue to ripen on days in the 50’s and above.
It was 25 when I got up this morning and all the apples out there appear unaffected.
Matt, I’m thinking they won’t ripen in storage if they are picked too soon. Last year I harvested them right about this time and they went bad quickly. I’m thinking the great keeping abilities etc must not manifest itself unless it was at least partially tree ripened to begin with. The seeds of the one I sampled yesterday were like a mocha brown…I kinda expected them to be darker. I’m thinking they have a ways to go.
Also, the skin is again tough and kinda bark-like again. I’m not at all fond of that. This apple has so many positive attributes though that it’s a darn shame it couldn’t be a pinch earlier. Mine have remained unsprayed since sometime in July I think and there isn’t a single solitary tiny mark or flaw on any of them…not even the slightest blemish of any kind.
I’d definitely recommend this apple to anyone who likes it and has the season for it. Hopefully I can get through tonight unscathed, that alone will buy it another 10 days at least.
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I understand how the frost may not bother them, but the freezing seems another story.
I can’t understand how freezing temps don’t cause the cells to expand and rupture…like it would on any other fruit. Does sugar content aid or abet freezing?
I’m gonna give it a go, but I’m a bit skeptical I must admit. Seems everyone is in agreement that it is preferable to early harvest, so we’ll see what happens.
This cold aside…this has been a truly spectacular year for apples. For that I’m truly grateful to mother nature. A wonderful year!
Sugar is an antifreeze. Ability to withstand cold damage seems a combination of sugar content and general firmness. I’ve not sure at exactly what temp causes GR to turn to mush but have been very surprised to see firm fruit well into Dec most years.
I don’t fault any skepticism, when you google for info on the subject you will find nothing about the ability of some varieties to hold up to this level of cold. Leave a couple fruit on your tree and find out for yourself. Or leave them all- no point in harvesting still green Goldrush. If they don’t at least start to turn yellow they aren’t worth much, IMO. I’ve had years where they never ripened here.
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This year has been very good for my Goldrushs and several others (Sweet Sixteen, Priscilla, and my best year for Ashmead’s Kernel yet)- some of my others were more iffy. At this point, only Goldrush, Sundance, and Crimson Crisp have any apples left on the trees. Of those, 80-90% are Goldrush. Here’s one of my two GR (both are loaded).
It was really cold today- it was 45 when I went out and 39 when I was done (in the dark). I bundled up for winter (4 layers, and some face protection). Here’s me picking as many kiwi as I could find. I wouldn’t have been suprised if my neighbors reported a masked man stealing my fruit 
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Bob,
Without a hat, you could be mistaken for a Ninja 
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A katana would have been helpful with the kiwi- they were very overgrown. I’ll probably post a thread on them soon.
Bob, I’m happy to see your loaded GoldRush tree bent over like that, since mine looks the same and I was a bit worried about that, though it does seem to be holding up fine. In fact I thinned about 800 apples from it back in early June. Seems like every month brings a new worry for the amateur… However I did eat an apple that had fallen from the tree today and it was pretty tasty, despite not being fully ripe.
My thermometer says 19.7 right now. I will see in a few hours how my apples fared. Lots of them are still on the trees, but all I need are in storage. However, without Goldrush, I won’t have anything worth eating by about mid-winter.
Same here in Maine, around 20F. 2nd half of Baldwin, most of Golden Delicious, Goldrush still on trees, most certainly frozen through. We shall see…they might all be destined for the cider mill at this point.
It was 28 here at 8:30 (2 degrees under what WC reported for my zip). So our min was probably around 25-26. I bet Goldrush will be fine, but I’m interested to see what it does to kiwi and jujube.
As I said, 19.7 degrees and I just tested a Goldrush after placing it by my fire for a couple of hours. It is still as firm as ever!
It may have been a couple degrees warmer in the branches of this tree than where the thermometer was- I can’t be sure about that.
Yep…went out and checked mine and they seem just fine although they seem to me like they’re a bit paler in color. Not sure about that. I grasp one tightly in my hand and it was still real cold inside. I squeezed them hard and like Alan says, they also seem firm as before.
I had looked into the sugar as an antifreeze thing yesterday after posting. I sorta thought I remembered something about that. I did not find just how much prevention it offers though. For me though, there has to be something more to it. What could it be? Watermelon for example would have been totally destroyed here last night.
Maybe some cellular tissue has more elasticity than others, but then I would think fruit with that attribute would be less firm.
Whatever the reason, it looks like they’ll be fine…glad for that.
BTW…they’ve been yellow/gold for some time, actually they really haven’t changed in appearance for well over a month. I think I’ll probably pick them before the next freeze.
If they are at near 20 brix they might be ripe.