I have been so pre-occupied with getting the upstate orchard prepped for winter that I overlooked a Pink Lady in a back corner of the backyard. Today I was winterizing the backyard when I noticed this Pink Lady. This in Nassau County NY Zone 7b.
Texture is perfectly crisp juicy flavorful and sweetly sour.
Brix from three sampled was from a “smidge” under 16 to a solid 16.5. Glad I forgot them because these January 2nd treats are fantastic. Hope it bodes well for 2016.
Pink Lady was exceptionally good this year. I have some 2nds that are still on my tree that I’m leaving for the birds and they are still crisp here as well. One lesson for me this year was to leave the lates on until they are actually ripe unless the temps are going below 20 F or so or they defoliate. Goldrush and Pink Lady kept getting better right into Dec and PL still has some leaves.
I love the color of Pink Lady on the tree. A perfect apple to espalier in an ornamental situation.
Now wait a minute: the “experts” say that Pink Lady won’t ripen for you that far north, and should be grown in only a warmer climate where it can hang on the tree long. Do you mean to tell me that the “experts” were wrong and you’re getting good apples off your tree? This can’t be happening…
I believe that the longer hours of sunlight helps compensate for the colder climate. With peaches, Olpea in Kansas, has early varieties of peaches such as Harrow Diamond ripen about two weeks ahead of me in Southern NY but by mid-Aug I’ve caught up with him and my latest varieties ripen before his. This in spite of his getting more heat units and a much earlier spring in KS.
All species and specific varieties probably have various factors affecting when they ripen. The length of daylight somehow has been overlooked by the academics as a factor determining how long this might take.
Also, if you research how long you can leave apples on the tree into cold weather to get them to ripen up you likely won’t find anything definitive as far as how cold temps can be without destroying the quality of the crop.
Pink Lady happens to be able to take particularly low temps without either losing its leaves or losing the appealing texture of its apples.
You read this on growingfruit.org first. Let’s see how long Cornell takes to catch on.
That’s always my worry, that all the apple trees in Riverside and Uganda somehow find out that they’re not supposed to be growing there and will up and quit. I guess like me, they’re too ignorant to know any better.
Makes you wonder what other presuppositions are wrong that have been needlessly depriving people of some good fruit?..
Speaking of which, how many of you people have been told “it’s going to get really cold this week, better pick all those apples before the freeze gets to them or they’ll be worthless”, and you’ve been settling for sour, unripe apples all this time?
You’ve also probably never heard that an apple could ripen on Long Island in January, especially Pink Lady, which is from Australia, so don’t even bother growing it that far north?
And FINALLY, how come “super low-chill” apples like Anna and Dorset Golden still grow fine in upstate New York, but blossom in April and harvest in the fall with all the other apples instead of blossoming in January like in warm climates?
I think the safest assumption is to not assume anything, but give it a try.
And to also read carefully about other experiences here. It was by comparing ripening times of specific varieties with Olpea that I came to the idea that lengthier daylight helps at least some varieties-species to catch up with same varieties further south.
Some apples are usually left on the tree when the crop is heavy, so I long knew that apples could take much colder temps than the gurus suggested but I actually started taking temp readings to try to figure out exactly what the window is and to find out if they keep on ripening because of a discussion we were having here about Goldrush.
However, when I’ve tried to push the envelope on cold-hardiness I’ve usually been burned eventually- the one notable exception is grafted Dunston chestnuts
Just saw this old post while wondering how long to keep my Cripps Pink on the tree. I’ll pick slowly through Dec and into January if temps aren’t too low. Don’t know what too low is for Pink Lady. We’ve had 28f and they are ok.
Going down to 22f-24f tonight (Nov 28) so I picked a few Cripps Pink. Based on seed color they where still not ripe but tasted nice although not very sweet. Hope the remaining will survive.
I’d like to get an earlier maturing mutation. PLMAS98 (known as Maslin), PLBAR B1 (known as Barnsby) or PLFOG99 (known as Pink Belle) are mutations that ripen about 2 weeks earlier.
@danzeb
Just saw your post from a while back. Not been active this year because this year I had a terrible weather /blooming mismatch. Blooms were out and it was 42 degrees so no polinators. then when it warmed up some it rained 6 days staright so no luck there. This year gave me les than 30 fruit and those were some mishapen pears. (The orchasrd is in Z5b 35mi. south of Albany, NY)
But, to respond to your question, the Pink Lady in my comment was located at the residence in Long Island NY in Z7b, and at that time even in January the temps had not yet hit the Mid- 20’s.
I ate one of my Cripps Pink yesterday. Brix was 12.5. I didn’t check earlier. Lowest temp so far was 25f. Texture was still good. I may be able to leave them on the tree for a week or two more.
