I harvested all but a dozen or so of our GoldRush and Sundance apples last night. It dropped to 22 and we got 2 inches of snow. I will be thinning more next year in hopes of getting a larger percentage of well ripened fruit, especially from Sundance on g.30. I’m afraid I might have tripped it into going biennial this year… We’ll see what next year holds.
I picked a Granny Smith three days ago after a night in the mid 20’s and it was fine. I probably could have left it on, but it might get into the teens tonight so I only could have got another few days out of it anyway. It tasted very good but brix was only 14. Even so, I’d be happy to get more just like it next year.
We had a number of low 20’s in Oct. And several mid teens this month and the half dozen small Black Oxfords i’d left on the tree did fine. I’ll save a few to see how they store compared to most of the crop I picked earlier. I picked those last ones when they predicted single digits. But it only got down to 10 last night. Cold enough though. Thankfully we had gotten about 4" of snow, too.
well it did go down to 17 and the apples were throughly frozen. total loss.
1 Like
Ouch.
21F expected tomorrow morning here so I just harvested all my Yates apples (the other varieties are long gone). They will need to store for awhile as they are still not optimally ripe. I also grabbed the remaining kiwis and persimmons. The kiwis really don’t like getting frozen.
I left some lesser quality Goldrush and a mystery apple on the trees and they got ruined. I was going to add to my cider, but didn’t trust the flavor they had.
Ruined at what temp, John?
1 Like
Didn’t check temps last night.
I picked mine Thurs am when it hit 26 F and hard frost covered everything.
Fri am was 23F and this morning was 19F. Yours may have been in the 20’s.
My site apparently hit 17 (according to my therm in a cold spot), which is 2 degrees above predictions. Haven’t checked the few apples I left on the trees. I have bushels in my basement. Wish more of my Rush had turned yellow.
1 Like
Yes, I’m sure we were a little warmer on the coast here than you.
Since you said your apples were ruined this morning, I wonder at what temp (21 ,22?m, 23? ).
I picked mine at 26 F. They were fine. Would mine have been ruined if I left rhem til Fri at 23 F?
It would be good to have a baseline for reference in the future.
@alan, my Gold Rush weren’t fully ripe, either.
I’ve seen them do fine down to 22.
I just tried one that got too cold last night. It still tasted good and wasn’t mush, but lost a lot of its crispness and I’m pretty sure it will degrade very quickly now. Probably saw around 17-19 degrees. Could still be used for sauce or probably even in pies- at least today and tomorrow.
Thank you for your feedback.
For my mental health, I decide I will pick my last apples when temp is around 25-26 F.
Last Thurs morning, temp was at 26F with hard frost. Ice/frost covered everything. Fortunately, my GR apples were in bags so they got protection.
Fri morning was at 23F, quite dry, no frost. I should have left an apple or two to test the temp.
I’d like to be able to store my apples so I won’t wait until it is in a low 20’s.
Hmmm, maybe I should have followed your example. Probably too late to undo the damage.
I got to 21F last night. I’m glad I picked all. Well, I wished I had left one or two so I could assess the damage of 21F.
We had a very warm fall but this 21F came a bit earlier than usual. I usually am picking the last stuff around Thanksgiving here.
Yup, in recent years it’s mostly been staying above 24 here until Thanksgiving. Spring wasn’t real early and the season was so cool and wet that some varieties, like Pink Lady, Braebern and Goldrush could have used a couple more weeks of relative warmth to obtain best quality. I have enough ripe Rush for myself, but will be giving away lots that aren’t at peak. The smaller apples on my nursery trees ripen earlier than the big ones on my orchard trees- I tasted some great Pink Ladies from that source. Maybe for the very late ripeners I should take all the apples off some branches and wait until late to thin the others, so I get smaller riper apples and annual bearing. I’d happily accept a smaller crop of really perfect pink ladies.
concur. this was a fairly unusual cold snap. Thanksgiving is when I do all my final pickings (including roots in the garden).