There has been some discussion on adequately ripening Goldrush lately. If trees are on vigorous rootstocks, you can speed the ripening process with spring and summer pruning on already quite open trees, especially by removing shoots of no value to the fruit coming off of big wood. Leaves that serve a piece of fruit need to be within about 8" of it to send it photosynthates. These leaves need to be well lit.
Another issue is how long to leave fruit on a tree if you need every chance to get fruit as ripe as possible. 55 F seems to be the cutoff point and once days at least that warm are unlikely, you may as well harvest your crop.
CHAT says, Once daytime temps consistently fall below ~55 °F, nearly all the post-harvest benefits you’d get by leaving apples on the tree (softening, acid decline, development of esters and volatiles) occur just as well — often better — in storage at moderate refrigeration temperatures.
Most apple varieties are not damaged until temps fall below 24F… I’ve seen Goldrush hold its texture to around 22F. I don’t believe that if fruit is normally firm, its storagability is altered. Guess I will ask CHAT about that next.
And to that, CHAT says: you can safely assume that an apple that shows no textural or visual symptoms after warming to room temperature has not sustained meaningful freeze injury, either to its cell membranes or to its storage potential.
So anyone with an accurate thermometer in their orchards can leave a few late apples on their trees and provide us their evidence of how freeze tolerant their specific varieties are. The literature is lacking in information on this. For this info to be useful, we would need to know the brix of the fruit because even same varieties have increasing cold tolerance as brix levels go up. The reason Goldrush is frost tolerant must be strongly tied to its relatively high brix.
Chat tells me that an additional 8 points brix gives you about a 2F level of greater freeze protection.
If your apples have been exposed to some relatively low temps, you can determine if they are worth space in the fridge by letting them fully warm to room temp, visually inspect them for freeze damage and then eat one that looks typical of the batch. Your mouth is a very good judge.
Looks like I will need to start picking my apples mid- August- Just kidding mid October sounds about what I thought. Thanks, that is important information.
I learned this year that tomatoes also don’t ripen much outside a temperature window and you’re better off picking them when they have a solid blush and bringing them inside.
ive noticed on some late apples, after several good frosts, the upper part of the apple gets translucent. its esp. noticeable on yellow apples. they are still are crunchy but it does something to that section of apple. it becomes sweeter. im going to experiment on my late apples and keep them out there until it hits about 25 at night, then pick them. some of them i may have to as im at the limit of where these apples ripen anyway.
We have been getting daytime temps above 55. However, starting Sunday we are getting day temps in the 40’s and 30’s with night time temps down to 25 degrees with snow. Then on Wednesday temps go back into the mid 50’s and low 60’s with night temps in mid to upper 30’s and 40’s. So by that measure I need to pick all my fruit by Sunday, before it gets that cold and snows.
I have Idared, Spitzenburg, and Calville Blanc d’Hiver still on the trees. I’ve slowly been picking them off the trees. Still lots of apples left on the trees. I’ve taken at least 40 gallons of apples ( 5 gallon buckets) of of them so far.
Snow isn’t an issue. Maybe leave a few of the apples if they are not fully ripe and see if they benefit or suffer from the consequences. The best Granny Smith apples I’ve taken off a tree were in a mild December and I’m pretty sure the apples had been through a few 25F days.
I have a groundhog that runs back and forth carrying and apple in its mouth from under my trees to get the drops. So I know they are ready to be picked.
I’ve had snow on some of my apples throughout the years. It is suppose to get 24 degrees two nights in a row. Usually when we got snow before the snow was just on them during the night where the temps were closer to 30 degrees and the next day the temps melted the snow.
I agree with you, I was going to leave some apples on to test how they do with the temps getting that low.
I just picked 20 gallons off two trees this evening. Still about another 20 gallons left on the two trees. I will get most of them off tomorrow prior to Sunday evening and Monday morning snows.
Then I will test the theory of how low ( temps) can they go…
Here if it’s not getting above 55F during the day it will be approaching hard freeze at night, so the apples will be picked soon anyway. My late apples I always leave on as long as possible because the temps go up and down so even if it’s really cool for a week there could be a really warm week following that.
Where I live the biggest factor is rain. It can still be above 60 during the day, but raining nonstop … for days in a row. Most apples split, at least a little, in those conditions. I try to let some of them hang until Nov 15, but it’s rare that they aren’t cracking before then. I think @jcf has similar weather even though we’re in different states, and wonder when he picks his last apples.
I here you @LarisaLee. The rain has been relentless here as well. My temps haven’t been too bad, in fact a couple days in the 60’s, lows in lower 40’s but the Goldrush on M7 was my last holdout and i did get a few boxes off of them a few days ago but as of last checking, i have given up on further harvests. The ones that are closest to ripe are splitting and poor flavor. Overall, though i am very happy with the Goldrush harvest this year.
What part of Oregon are you in? Near the coast at all? I have a sister that lives at Seal Rock. Also i was born in Roseburg and our original family farm is in Sunny Valley.
I’m in a little valley about half way between Yoncalla and Roseburg, west of I5 and Oakland. I know Seal Rock. My parents lived in Yachats. Lovely area, not really great for apples though.
