Harvesting Apples Early

I am considering harvesting some of my apples early, reason being there is one (or more) flocks of magpies which are pecking the apples, and at the current rate they may damage/eat them all before the apples are ripe.

This is mostly a problem on the larger trees with a significant crop (Summer Crisp and Lodi). I am guessing that the Lodi would be right for picking in a week or two, and the Summer Crisp a week or two after that, if the birds weren’t a problem.

My question is, what am I giving up by not letting the apples ripen/grow as long as I “should” on the tree. I know there are some varieties which actually improve in storage (not these particularly), but I assume there must be some stage that you need to let the apples get to before picking them. What are the trade offs?

Also if anyone has any suggestions as to how to keep birds/magpies out of the apples I am all ears. I was thinking of ziploc bagging apples on some of my younger trees with only a few fruit on them (will that work to keep magpies out?). But other things I’ve tried don’t seem to have any effect with magpies.

I hope some people chime in and answer this. I’m sure there are members here who have answers and/or opinions on what difference an early harvest makes.

The harvesting crew was working the orchard I went to this weekend. The orchard grows a variety of apples. They were completely picking one variety at a time. I assume in order of ripening, but can’t be sure of that. I can tell you, though, that the apples I saw had not hit their peak ripeness. The reason I mention this is that what I saw means that mass commercial picking is not always scheduled for peak ripeness. They have many factors that come into play that small scale growers don’t.

You have to pick before peak ripeness if you want to store the fruit. That’s because they continue to ripen in storage and you want peak ripeness at the end customer. Amazingly with controlled storage they can extend the ripening process to as long as 12 months. But consider the end product, usually not so good. That’s what will happen here. The apples picked way early should be stored the longest and used last. But the result will probably be about what you get from the store in late spring or following summer.

I’d try some bird tape first to see if that has any effect http://www.bird-x.com/irri-tape-products-52.php?page_id=61

You can get unripe apples from the store- no need to grow your own.

Thanks.

I decided to harvest the Lodi and Summer Crisp. Tests showed that they were tasting good and their seeds were starting to turn brown (we are normally 1mo behind lower elevations and even more this year as we had a late wet spring).

Most of the other bearing trees are in their 4th leaf here, so not that big nor that many fruit. Too few to be sampling every week. I will bag some and just guess at the right harvest time on the others.

I am curious though, when harvesting early, are there any guidelines. Should one wait until the seeds begin to change color; something else? I would have thought that with all the commercial storage of apples they would have figured this out.

BTW, I have tried the bird scaring tape in the past, and it did not do much good; the birds became used to it within a few days. What seems to work best is for for me to be out there working, that keeps the birds away. Short of that, nothing I have tried (including shooting at the birds) seems to work for very long. Fortunately I have been putting in a 6’ deer/bear fence (we have a bunch of critters here that like to eat fruit and fruit trees). That had me working out in the orchard almost every day for near to a month, which helped a lot. The birds have really only become a nuisance again since the fence work was over, and the apples started getting riper.

The oldtimer guide was an iodine starch test of the cut apple surface. What’s important is how much starch has already been converted to sugar. Seems like I’ve read about newer methods but can’t recall now. It is a very big deal for those that store apples and has been well documented.

Thanks Fruitnut, I will look up that iodine test.

Also though I am curious about what other ripening changes can or can’t occur after picking. I’ve seen seeds darken while the apples are in storage, so I know that can happen. What about skin color, can that change off the tree? Presumably the total carbs are set once the apple is detached from the tree, but will starches convert to sugars (or via versa)?

What else will or won’t happen to apples in storage?

It varies greatly between varieties. Some improve tremendously, others go from bad to worse. OK, most go from bad to worse. A hallmark of a fine keeper is one that will wrinkle up and go punky but still have good texture and flavor (White Winter Pearmain comes to mind).

I’ve spent my evening trying to find answers to your questions and had some interesting reading along the way. I think they are good questions, and I wanted to get a better understanding of the process, as well. I went apple picking in a commercial orchard this past weekend at the same time that the harvest crew was working the rows. I considered the apples at least a few weeks away from peak ripeness. I was slightly surprised to learn this week that commercially grown apples for both fresh market and processing are harvested prior to becoming ripe.

Some highlights of what I’ve read:

  • storage apples should be mature but not ripe
  • starches will continue to convert to sugars
  • they will lose moisture (Storage apples are waxed to reduce water loss and premature wrinkling)
  • to an extent, cooler is better 35-36F 95% humidity were good conditions for some types

The iodine test was called the iodine index. I read other papers, but this study done in Lithuania, on a variety of which I’m unfamiliar, seemed the most straightforward for answering your questions.