Apple newbie - When are the ready to harvest?

You might post a photo of one of the apples taken from different angles and it in half. The folks here are very knowledgeable and quickly identified an apple I did not know last fall

Thanks Derby42. I will take some photos tomorrow and post them. I will include the fruit and the tree.

Many of the trees sold by big box stores turn out to not be the variety on the tag, so its no surprise its not Gala.

Splitting is often due to big rains, but some diseases also produce damage looking like splitting. So if you had a picture of the splitting that would also help.

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OK folks, here are the photos I took today and some I took earlier this year to hopefully help you fruit gurus to identify this variety. I also included photos of the fruit and blooms. The fruit shots include fruit on the tree, fruit cut in half to show inside and also a few pics of fruit that are damaged, either with splits or desease/burn. Any help that you can give me on identifying these issues and improving what I am doing is greatly appreciated. Lastly, I included a photo of my very first successful graft. The graft is in its 2nd year being made last spring. Kind of proud of this baby, :grinning:Apple%20mature%20fruit%20half Apple%20Graft%202018

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The splitting is due to rains, its not common on apples and you don’t have too many split there.

I don’t know the variety, its not one I have grown. Its probably a common one if you got it at a big box store, someone here should be able to recognize it I hope.

Thanks Scott. I had hoped that planting in a raised bed would solve the "wet"problem. I guess rain is a separate issue from wet roots. The tree does not show many split apples as I have removed about 3 dozen already and disposed of them. I was concerned the split might be do to a disease and did not want to keep damaged apples on the tree.

Could the variety be Granny Smith?

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I don’t think so but then most of what I have seen have been green or yellowish. These do turn red. As of September 24 I still have mostly green to greenish yellow with some red blush. As you can see from the photos the fruit is not blocked from the sun by a lot of canopy. I have several I picked and have exposed to cold in refrigeration. I am going to peal and taste there to see if there has been any effect by exposure to cold. When mixed red/green the flesh is somewhat sweet and crisp. If allowed to go full red the sweetness do not improve and the texture becomes a bit mealy.

I was thinking Granny Smith too…but they don’t turn red.
Granny Smith is hard to apple ripen…maybe why they pick it unripe for market. BB

Granny Smith can get a slight red blush when ripe, but they probably would be more green than what is shown.

I’ve not seen any Granny’s more “red” than what I’ve seen a Yellow Delicious…if as much.

And in 28 years I bet I’ve not gotten two dozen ripe apples…they fall, they rot, and the bees eat them…you pick them green if you want to process or store or make pies. If you want tree ripened…I hope you live in a far drier climate than Kentucky.

(Or spray often!)

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As an update, I have experienced no additional split apples although we have had periods of substantial rain. As of Oct 1 I have picked a few apples and they are red/green. Tart/Sweet to taste and very crispy. The flavor is some what reminiscent of Braeburn and Fuji but not as intense as either. This is suppose to be a grafted variety but I am wondering now if it was grown from seed. The remaining fruit are holding on the tree but none have turned red or gained additional blush since I first posted.

For reference, here’s a link to a pic of a Granny Smith I harvested a few years ago: Lowest temps for apples on the tree? - #38 by ztom
Mine was picked on Nov. 7 in Ohio. Granny Smith is a very late apple, but maybe in zone 8b it could be ready now. I assume your extra sun would make any red blush more pronounced.

This year I put some organza mesh bags on some other apples right as the yellow jackets were getting active and it seemed to help a lot with that issue. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any Granny Smith set for me. I pruned the tree pretty hard last year, maybe that had something to do with it.

Hmmm. Could be. Since Granny Smith are generally not grown here what we see is what is in the stores but local Big Box do sell GS trees so a mislable is possible. I will by one at the store and compare texture, shape and general flavor profile for similarities.

Thanks

I’d say either Hawaii or Granny Smith, first photo is Hawaii
Hawaii

Or Northwest Greening

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Do you start to see the trouble with identifying apples? Here’s two more, Mutsu and Morgenduft


Morganduft

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Well , as an update, I still have not identified the variety although I am pretty sure from the replies posted that it is not Granny Smith. Too many had too much red. When “ripe” They were blush to deep red with green and yellow green areas and speckled. The flesh is cream colored and crisp with a sweet/tart flavor, similar but not the same as Granny Smith. This years small crop yielded one 13X9" pan of apple crisp that was pretty good.

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