@Professor_Porcupine can weigh in here. He said they ripen if they have a little color on them if I recall (similar to tomatoes) but I may be misremembering
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WOW! Those are the biggest Mayapple fruits I’ve ever seen, fantastic genetics!
Definitely save seeds from those on top of the rhizomes.
I can guide you thru saving Mayapple seeds step by step as I’d love to get some too.
@Fruitfanatic All of those mayapples will ripen sitting on the tray like you have in the last photo. I’d only recommend you spread them out for better airflow & occasionally flip them around so they don’t rot before they fully ripen (Due to lack of airflow).
Especially those with some color showing will continue to ripen off the plant (Even the ones that are too green have a very good chance of fully ripening). From the photo, most of these look like they are starting to show color change which is exactly when you can harvest them to ripen off plant later.
Both, the best Mayapple Patches are in full sun areas & likely those areas allow the best genetics to survive for fruit production to survive. I’m likewise also interested to see the next generation (Likely at least half of the offspring will carry those traits).
Yes please! I’m curious about the fruitskin to pulp ratio too! Might this be an surviving semi-wild landrace originally bred by Native Americans?
Yup! You remember correctly, as soon as they show color change it’s a safe bet they will ripen well off the counter. Even those that don’t show color may eventually ripen but it’s not as guaranteed as those that show a lil color change.
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I’ve yet to get a ripe mayapple this year. Critters eat them all.
I happened to have a trail camera on one of my patches. Threw together a quick time lapse gif the them growing.
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Are you 100% sure it’s critters or just lack of sunlight not making any fruit possible?
If it is indeed critters, just harvest the fruits unripe. Critters will not eat them unripe thus you can harvest them green & ripen at home to enjoy fruits.
Yo, that’s awesome! I love this gif, seeing Mayapples throughout the season is Beautiful! Very interesting to see the season transition.
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I’m sure, there was so much fruit a few weeks ago, even in dense shade locations! I very rarely ever see a fruit get past the first stage of ripening where it transitions from dark green to light green before they dissapear.
I saw a green one in another patch a few days ago, I’ll go pick it if its still there and attempt the counter ripening!
I can plan to update the gif in a few weeks to capture the senescense of the plants. Already starting to look pretty ragged. Maybe I’ll pull the hd images off the sd card instead of these super compressed blurry image. Probably will also be able to better see what animals were eating the fruit…
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I’ll save lots of seeds. Is there more to it than cleaning the pulp off of the seeds and then storing them in moist peat moss or moist sand in the fridge?
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Yes, 1 more step. Send a postcard to prof porcupine with some seeds 
I’d suggest storing some dry. Storing them in moist peat moss/sand is ideal if you plan to plant them soon (they need need cold/wet stratification to sprout supposedly). But with so many it may be worth trying both dry and wet storage just in case something goes wrong
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If that’s the case, maybe the fruit falls off before it fully ripens or Animals are on crack risking death for eating unripe mayapples 
.
Usually animals go after those that have a smell & leave the unripe ones alone, so it’s very odd indeed.
Nice! Go for it, might as well pick any others that remain.
True, yo what if it’s another forager 
, maybe you might find a new friend.
Fantastic! I clean the seeds by simply eating the fully ripe fruits.
- I tear open a fully ripe fruit (Full Color with Delicious Smell).
- Suck up all the pulp while discarding the skin.
- Spit out the seeds onto a plastic tray or table (Not Paper Towel as seeds will stick to it & not come off when they dry).
- Wait for seeds to dry so they can be stored.
If you plan on eating every Mayapple fruit & spiting out seeds, you can save a bunch of seeds. Alternatively if you have ridiculous amounts of Mayapples, I’m sure you can tear into each fruit & Scoop out the pulp. Then run it thru a strainer (Seeds are relatively big enough to stay while keeping pulp).
I never done the strainer method with Mayapples, I’ve just eaten them & spit out the seeds to dry.
Moist peat moss or moist sand in fridge is not required. They store fine in dried in Plastic ziplock Bags. But if you want to plant some right away, pick a good spot & direct sow them (Or spit out seeds strategically where you want more mayapples as you eat them).
Yes please!
I agree! Out of curiosity, you can try both & see which germinates faster vs which stores longer, ect.
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Hmm. I have a ton of these on my property line and didnt know ehst they were. Time to investigate.
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I harvested some this year from some notably productive patches with decent sunlight, I stored them with bananas and they ripened from green with just a touch of white to a solid yellow.
Nice very unique flavor, definitely tropical notes, well balanced, not cloying or sour
There was and is still a ton of unripe fruit but I have never in my life seen one past the green just starting to turn white stage.
I think they ripen from that stage fast enough on the plant that the animals just eat it the second they are ripe
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Has anyone personally sprouted Mayapples from previously dried seeds?
I was told they have to stay moist. Nate Kleinman recommended I “leave them in their own juice to ferment”, but I don’t recall having much luck with that method either.
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This is a choice mayapple that was grown from seed by taking the seed from a slightly overripe fruit and planting the seed 1/4-1/2” in a canopy of eastern pine in early fall. The mayapple came up in the spring after two dormancy periods.
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It might not have been two dormancy periods, but likely the first year of growth was too small to notice.
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They are bigger than I expected. I thought theyd be quarter/nickel sized. Especially on a young plant.