Fruits & Vegetables you can pick early that will ripen inside

Many of you like me may be wondering what fruits will ripen inside? There are some we all know about we get from the store such as bananas, mango, kiwi etc. that ripen fine inside. Some fruits such as melons, cherries, strawberries, etc. will not. I picked my plums early due to varmint pressure which ripened fine inside. Today I started picking apples early , the Haralson had mostly brown seeds and 20% of the crop disappeared already due to Japanese beetles, weather, deer and raccoons so I did not feel I could wait longer. I had a successful cherry, plum, peach, blackberry, raspberry crop and wanted to keep that trend going with the apples & pears. Are you picking fruits early? This 5 gallon bucket of apples may not look like much but I figured we needed them. The first and last apples of the year are always the most welcome for us! I know this is supposed to be a late season apple but brown seeds mean time to pick in my book. We tend to ripen all fruit early due to 100 degree plus summer temperatures. We are over 100 again today.

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It has been brutal the last few days huh? I was looking at apples on my trees yesterday thinking I wish September would hurry up and get there. They are getting some good size, but I know they arent ripe yet. I will have to be content with a few blackberries I have left. Had a bumper June bearing strawberry crop this year.

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Don’t forget pears! Some things are better ripened off the tree.

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Brown seeds is ripe in my book, too

Vegetables - tomatoes and peppers color up off the vine

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Seems to me (limited experience here) that some apples need to be left on past the brown-seed stage if they are to be eaten right away, but if you plan to hold them pick them when you first see that all (?) the seeds are brown, or shortly thereafter.

This seems to matter on my Liberties, anyway. I’m sure it will vary from apple to apple, climate, for that matter, season to season.

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The wind picked a few of my Zestar apples a little early. There were only 15 to start with… One was damaged, so I ate it right away… It wasn’t starchy, just sour. It had white seeds still, but we are about 2 weeks ahead of schedule for Zestar here, I think.

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Some of Zestar apples seem to get ripe in my garden. They are almost all yellow and sweet. Some are still green. Did not want squirrels to pick my first apples, so I picked the yellow ones. It is too early for the Zestar, according to the charts. I wonder if plastic bags are the reason that they ripen faster. It should be really hot inside the bags right now.

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I could see that you might be a week or so ahead of me (Omaha vs. Eastern IA). I found emails from the u-pick nearest me that would suggest they were picking Zestar about August 6 the last two years. Mine are still green. Turning from green to yellow seems like a good sign that yours are close to ripe.

When continuing the ripening process inside do you immediately store them cold or at room temp. and then transfer to cold storage after they have ripened.

I aim for maximum storage with our Liberties, and I reason that getting them cold as soon as possible helps in that goal. So I put 3-5 pounds in a poly bag, tie it up tight, and get them cold right away. Each bag is dated.

Keep in mind that Liberty is a very uneven ripener, taking three or more weeks to ripen my whole tree, So as I’m picking I start to develop a sense of what’s readiest. We eat some right away, of course, but tend to try to store the earliest picked for late use, and use the later-picked earlier, thinking that they will not keep as well; this seemed to work last year.

Good luck with yours.

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Not that I like to pick early but, if I don’t the birds, bees, and critters will. I have honeybees really enjoying now.




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Kaki persimmon is a good option for this. And medlar needs to undergo bletting too, though I’ve never had it.

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