Yes, I know it should be simple but I still have questions as this is my first
year with a good crop and I have several types of apples.
I’ll start by what I thought I knew.
The ripening charts say that Honeycrisp and Cortland should be around Sept 10/15
for my area. That is about another three weeks.
The seeds should be brown and not white.
It varies from year to year.
So I’ve been telling my family “don’t pick’em yet!” they’ll be better when they are ripe!
However I have a couple of trees that have a couple falling off and they have brown seeds
and are delicious! I Guess it’s time?
I don’t want to wait and find that I waited too long just because of a couple of
ripening charts.
The remaining apples on this particular tree do not come off quite that easy but they will release after a
couple of small twist. I just wondered if maybe anyone else had seen early ripening this year?
I’ll try and wait a little longer. Just getting excited I suppose.
(I’ve been waiting for four years to get a good crop of apples)
Kids, If you want a hobby with instant gratification, do not choose to grow an orchard.
Daemon, Sept. 15 is the ripening date here in Z6 for Honeycrisp. I don’t think your’s are ripe there yet, in fact, I’m nearly certain of it. ACN says Sept. 10 for Gettysburg, PA. I have 3 weeks to go yet.
Honeycrisp (like many apples) will drop a few as they near ripeness, and as you say, the seeds will be dark, but don’t let that fool you as it has me. For sure, eat those that drop if you like them, those that drop now will be pretty good albeit more acidic. Honeycrisp when fully ripe achieves a good deep red color, more red than you usually see in the markets. Warm sunny days coupled with cool nights (the cool nights are more important) really start to bring in the deeper coloring. There should be a good amount of juice run at the knife blade when split in two. Right now is crunch time for Honeycrisp, the next few weeks is when all the flavor and aromas are formed and they really come into their own. At the same time however, these next few weeks is when any damage whether it be bitter pit, insect / bird and adjacent spur damage will really take their toll. The cells will expand rapidly and the fruit gains weight exponentially now with each passing day. Just watch the limb load, you’ll see them really struggling to manage the weight and strain.
If you are thinking they are good now, just wait a few weeks. If you want to eat some then of course eat any wind drops and ANY that has the least bit of damage through the skin, including any with large bitter pit lesions because most of these will not make it to full ripeness before rot sets in.
Daemon, I tug on my apples. If they give, they fall right into my hand. If the small tug doesn’t work, they stay on and I try again in a day or two. That is how I checked all of my August Pristine apples, and it worked very well.
Its not an easy question. I go a lot by the color on the bottoms, many apples have green on the bottoms that turns to more yellow as they ripen. Don’t be fooled by the few early ones, especially if you have a few bug-infested fruit they can ripen several weeks ahead. The ease with which a lift dislodges an apple is also something I use. If I think one is ripe and I left it and it clearly is not coming off, I usually leave it. But every variety is different, some you need to pick on the early side and some on the late side. I start by picking the most ripe-looking one, often I take a bite and decide how far along the batch is. If its to go into storage its going to taste young still, but it should still be worth eating. Some need time in cool storage for optimal taste, some don’t.
The raccoons will let you know. While you’re checking them every day, they’re checking them every night. Right when you say “aah, tomorrow I’ll pick them all”, the raccoons say the same thing the night before.
Something has definitely been getting after mine…first I blamed birds, then after finding chunks of uneaten apple on the ground I blamed deer…maybe raccoons are doing it there are certainly a lot of them around here.
Wish I had a game cam, I bet it’s pretty lively under and in my trees at night.
Update. I had a couple more on the ground under my youngest HCrisp Bud9s again so I thought that I would test pulling them off. Yup, They just fell in my hand, I actually bumped a limb and a couple fell.
So I tested each one with the lightest of tug and took off about 30. They would have fell anyway.
These two trees had smaller HCrisp than one of the others. They are about the size of a normal apple.
My only other HCrisp is still gonna make apples bigger than softballs.
Checked a Cortland tree also and they could not come off of the tree any easier.
You cannot lift them up at all without them coming loose.
Must be an early year for my orchard.
The tug test or branch shake works for me in most cases. Although I do have a seedling variety that never drops fruit. The apples will rot on the tree from freezing and will still be there in January. They have to be taken off the tree before first freeze. Some apples will push themselves off prematurely because the stem is too short for the size of the apple.
[quote=“Appleseed70, post:10, topic:2197”]
then after finding chunks of uneaten apple on the ground I blamed deer
[/quote]Did it look shredded or was it big bites? I’ve seen chipmunks shred half the apple just to get the seeds. It’s bizarre sight to see all these half shredded apples with missing seeds laying all over the ground. I would have never thought chipmunks could be a problem until I saw one do it.
AJ…since that post, I’ve discovered I was probably right the first time. I’ve found tiny feathers stuck to the half eaten apples, so it appears it is birds. Funny, they’ll never return to the same apple, but instead choose another fresh one.
I also have a question about apple (and pear) picking from a commercial perspective. I’ve always picked the whole tree for apples and pears when the seeds are dark (for apples) and the first pear shows some yellow. I pick the whole tree then. (As an aside, if you let most pears get too yellow on the tree, they will rot from the inside out in the Midwest - probably has something to do with high summertime temperatures - but I don’t know for sure.)
However, I would never pick a peach (or plum) tree this way. The largest peaches at the top of the canopy are always ready 2-3 days ahead of other peaches and many more days ahead of peaches lower in the canopy. I wonder if the same is true for apples and pears?
As far as I know most commercial apple/pear growers strip pick their trees as I do, but based on stone fruit I wonder if this is really the best method. My question is, how many folks on this forum strip pick their apple and pear trees? Is it worth it (quality wise) to try to spread out the harvest?
I understand some folks go by how easy each individual fruit lets loose from the shoot/spur, but that seems too ethereal for me (sorry, but true from a commercial perspective). I’m wondering if anyone has tried picking the largest top fruits first then picking down lower, as if they were peaches?
It depends on the apple. Ginger Gold for me is color picked over 2-3 weeks. Here they are best eating when about half green and half yellow. For my late apples it’s all before first hard freeze. In between it varies by apple but often when background changes from green to yellow. For storage apples need picking before fully ripe.
European pears are the most difficult for me. They’re harvested by date but I don’t know the dates very well since mine freeze out most yrs.
Well damn, Olpea…why didn’t you mention this a few weeks ago. I picked most of my pears (first year fruiting) the day before yesterday and some of the small ones were brown inside. Not like rot, but probably the early stages of it. The more green and larger ones did not have this problem at all, so I think your theory is legit.
I was wondering about it, but thought the more they ripen on the tree the better. Seems that isn’t necessarily the case. They started dropping a few, so I picked them.
I’ll post some photos soon.
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