Finished picking my Goldrush today

[Auburn]

Correction. Date in the picture should be 20180928.

[Susu]

Those look perfect! Were they in ziplock bags?

[Auburn]

The apples in this picture were in bags made from synthetic window screen. The Goldrush picked at an earlier date were in ziploc bags.

BroGanza Bags

What to do with leftover pieces of screen. These are easy and quick to make but will they get the job done? Screen blocks some of the sunlight and I wanted to see if I could harvest a few PAF blackberries from my primacanes. The sun simply bakes them on the vine. We shall see. I thought you would get a chuckle out of the bag name. [image] [image]

[ltilton]

Do you have a photo of those screen bags?

[Auburn]

This is a few pictures of the Broganza bags on another post. Click on the link and scroll downward.

BroGanza Bags

What to do with leftover pieces of screen. These are easy and quick to make but will they get the job done? Screen blocks some of the sunlight and I wanted to see if I could harvest a few PAF blackberries from my primacanes. The sun simply bakes them on the vine. We shall see. I thought you would get a chuckle out of the bag name. [image] [image]

[jxz7245]

Mine too, I was looking forward to the idea of blackberries in the fall. But what’s the point if the fall crop is garbage, brown druplets etc

[alan]

My Goldrush turn yellow with a red blush when fully ripe, at least the ones well exposed to light- but they all turn yellow. Do those have brown-black seeds? What is the brix?

[Auburn]

I don’t have a brix gauge. Mostly rely on taste. The few that have achieved the dark yellow have been fantastic to eat. The ones that get a little red are already getting mushy. About 1/3 of these apples pictured had dropped (no damage due to screen cover) and I’m pretty sure with the ease that the others released they would have dropped soon. I suspect that my weather and bagging is causing early drops. One thing is for sure Goldrush is a great tasting apple. These apples went into the refrigerator so I haven’t checked the seed. The ones that I cut about a week ago had dark seed. I think in some years these will hang longer but I’m not sure. In contrast the few Pink Lady apples tend to handle the hot weather better. A couple of the PL are getting big and pink so they will soon be ready.

[alan]

Yeah, I’m not at all surprised the variety would behave differently in your much different climate. Mine ripen in cool weather and won’t be ready to harvest until first week of Nov. They don’t even tend to drop much and stick to the trees over-winter which pleases my birds.

However, this year I’m having some other varieties of fruit drop early in spite of a late spring without achieving top flavor. I assume the excess rain and cool weather is somehow related to this.

I find refractometers somewhat helpful, if only to compare quality year to year and establishing causation to the fluctuations in quality. However, once you use one for a while your palate becomes almost as accurate at applying numbers to the sweetness.