From mid-May till end of Aug, I would probably work in my orchard every day after dinner till half an hour past sunset 
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I think I did a good job thinning most of my nectarine trees, but not so good with apples and Seckel pear. My Seckel crop was worthless this year, many, small, tasteless pears. Apples are a mixed bag, as some varieties did better than others, but all could have been better.
Many of my apples didn’t seem to have good flavor this year, but they weren’t crowded. It must have had to do with the weather.
Same here for apple’s harvested between mid-September and early October. Summer apples and late apple’s have been good.
The ground has been consistently dry all year, but there were just enough small showers to keep the grass from turning brown. It was very sunny and hot up until mid-August. Then it was cloudy most of the time from mid-August to mid-September. Then it gradually improved to be very sunny the second half of October. It’s interesting that the weather changes impacted ripening fruit with a 3-4 week delay
@northwoodswis4 and @AJfromElmiraNY
I am inclined to believe this year wacky weather has affected my fruit quality. In June, the weather was very hot by New England’s standard. We had temp reached 90 so many days as early early June. Usually, we typically don’t hit 90 until July.
Then, we had frequent rain and at time, heavy in the summer to early fall. By Sept, it has been mostly dry. The state called it a drought. Temp has mostly been above average. Yesterday it was 80F on Halloween. I remember a freak snow on Halloween about 10 years ago.
My watermelons ripened sooner than expected due to very hot June. By the time I picked them, they were overripe. Some plums cracked due to summer rain. My apples may not be happy as they have ripened in mostly warm fall.
Here too. By the mid-August all fruit was gone except for one apple. The heat was frankly, unbearable! Poor Spain!!! So much rain!!! It could have been us!
Here are my apples picked today, Nov, 2, 2024.
@alan Early Pink Lady looks like a Pink Lady but it is not early, unfortunately.
See what it does next year. This year my regular Pink Lady ripened about the same time or earlier. I have early that still has green under color and the original that is all red with just a touch of yellow near the stem, not green.
In previous years the Barnsby strain ripened about 10 days sooner, so we shall see. It’s hard to believe that the wood has a consistent set back ripening date where all the wood from my original tree goes back to it’s original timing. If it did that consistently how could nurseries maintain wood that ripened early?
This is not a good year to test apples but an exceptionally good year to taste them here- at least in my neck of the woods. Nothing but sunny blue sky days for almost 2 months. All my Goldrush are completely golden. All my Pink Lady ready to harvest.
Now we need rain.
All my Gold Rush are yellow now, at varying degrees. None remain green like most years. The one in the pic above was yellower in real than in the pic. Most days in Oct are warm and sunny days which have greatly helped my Gold Rush ripened.
When I was about to convert all GR branches to other varieties, it is ripening quite well this year to pull me back in.
By the way, I just ate Sun Crisp. It has been an excellent apple for me every year.
Balance of sweetness and tart with crisp texture. Beautiful apple, too.
I think it becomes bland in long storage. I like it for its somewhat anise flavor but generally prefer Goldrush, in part because by mid-winter it’s much better. I judge apples more by how they taste out of storage than off the tree. They are most important to me during the winter months.
I have a lot of spur-type Ark Black trees in my nursery because they never sized up very well in my unirrigated soils and boy are they ever loaded with beautiful apples this year. They seem to be too hard for birds to peck.
We make a rhubarb “juice”. Cut up some and cover with water, let simmer for 30 mins. Strain and press through a fine sieve. Either plain or lightly sweetened, it’s a fantastic tart drink. Kind of in the same realm as lemonade or roselle.
thanks for that tip. I’ve been looking for ways to use up all my excess rhubarb. never thought of juicing them. my Canada red should make a nice pink juice.
My kid likes it so much we have trouble making sure there’s enough rhubarb for baked goods!
Roselle has a nice aroma to it. I have not smelled anything from rhubarb, though.
Like like eating apples fresh off the tree but am fine with those that stored well like Crunch A Bunch, Gold Rush, etc. I’ve learned that several red fleshed apples taste quite tart off the tree but taste much better in storage,
Good illustration of bitter pit. Helpfull to a novice like me. My soil test shows low cal & mag so im amazed that i havent seen it. Im going to assume its just a matter of time if i dont get my numbers in order. Foliar feed will have to do till then.
Some varieties are more susceptible to bitter pit. Honey Crisp is a good example.
This year was dry and I saw some bitter pit on around a third of my varieties. Fortunately, it’s only been at the surface, so no apples lost so far. Assuming the dry soil conditions would affect the ability of the roots to absorb nutrients, I was expecting the manganese foliar treatments on Honeycrisp to be ineffective. To my surprise, I haven’t seen any bitter pit on Honeycrisp so far. I wonder if it would have prevented bitter pit on the other apples as well. I’m thinking of expanding the manganese spray to more apples next year.
For those unfamiliar, the manganese foliar spray is for preventing bitter pit in areas where soil is known to have adequate levels of calcium and potassium.
I added calcium in form of ground egg shells to the soil. Not sure how well it worked but saw very little bitter pit in my HC.
I had an insight on why it’s called “bitter pit” today. I was munching on a nice Rubinette on my hike and there was one tiny splotch of bitter pit which I usually cut out, but I just ate it… and I wished I hadn’t, it was very bitter and I spit it out. I’ve eaten bitter pit spots before and they didn’t taste so great but never bitter. Now I know where the name comes from…
Good to know.I have not bitten into bitter spots yet. I have eaten some bitter- pitted Honey Crisp. My luck may run out anytime in the near future.
By the way, my Rubinette this year have been very good. Got praises from friends I gave this apple to. We have had warmer than usual (and dry) Oct. It may have helped.
