This is not the season to buy apples because they’ve been in storage a long time. To keep, they need to be picked before they’re ripe. For this reason, they’ll have the texture and flavor of unripe fruit. After they come out of storage, they’re already as sweet as they’re going to get.
When the new crop begins to show up on roadside stands is the time to start buying (and using) apples. Just don’t expect to keep them into the winter yourself unless you have varieties that will withstand long storage and even improve with time. Keep them above freezing (but close) and in the highest humidity that you can manage.
I consider reading the following article as entertainment only, because I am not in the field. However, I know my health food store has organic apples from USA year round, so obviously they come from storage. They are too unripe to taste good. I also notice at Costco, when in season, they would have two types of the same apple variety, with the one classified as “new crop” a little more expensive.
My husband found it. He says no roots were exposed…just laying over on the ground. I haven’t dug or felt around it…It may have snapped at ground level.
I think you are right on the target. Those apples I bought very likely and old apples and have less of nutritional value. I may have to start grow apples on my own soon if I want have better tasting fruits.
I reduced my original picture of the Splash pluots from 2.0 MB to 42 KB, and posted on “2019 pick of the day (no text)”. Please let me know if the picture is good enough. If it is, and if everyone does it, then we can save a lot on display and storage fees.
I’m looking to buy Spinosad and looking at Bonide captain jack dead bug brew (.5% soinosad) and Monterey Garden insect spray (also .5% spinosad) you mix same amount of oz to a gallon of water on both products. But Captain Jack costs twice as much as Monterey.
At this point I don’t see why someone would spend more money on what seems to be the same product. Then I read what insects each product controls. Captain Jack lists OFM and CM. Monterey does not. Do you think they control the same insects with same amount of spinosad and captain jack label is not accurate when they claim to control OFM and CM? Or is it possible to formulate it in a certain way to control more insects with same level of spinosad?
Can anyone ID this volunteer cucurbit? It doesn’t look like anything I’ve grown, and I have no idea how the seed got into the row of bell peppers where it popped up.
Ah, so maybe a weird baby from a hybrid zuke? Mine died of borers before they ripened anything last year, so I still don’t know where the seed came from. Perhaps some little critter dropped it off… Thanks for the input!
I know that a lot of Japanese plums can be good pollenizers for pluots, but does anyone know if the reverse is also true? Specifically I have a Howard Miracle plum and am wondering if Geo Pride or Flavor King would work
Corn question… how many ears of corn each stock to produce? My corns grow extremely well this year, it looks like have potential of grow 4 ears each stock. Is it normal? Should I thin those ears that are still developing?
No don’t thin. Only two will develop enough to pick. The number of ears depends on growing conditions and plant spacing. The more the plants are spaced out the more ears but usually no more than two.
What is more likely to steal ripe plums…say 3 or 4 feet off the ground… a chipmunk (which i know is around here) or a squirrel. No evidence seems to been left behind…squirrels will sometimes leave half consumed nectarines/peaches at the base of power poles/trees/.