When do you start picking apples

Some of the newer red strains are challenging, because they are red all over long before they are sweet and mature. In these, the change in the color of the flesh goes from greenish to white when they are ripe. Red Delicious spur-types apples are odd in that the greenish tint may take months in storage to disappear, but they are fine to eat before that! Ease of separation. Unless the orchardist has used a "stop-drop" spray, that causes the apples to stay on the tree, mature apples are separate easily from the tree with a, twist it upward with a rotating motion.

Seeds: Cut a sample apple horizontally and look at the seeds. Usually, the seeds become brown the fruit is ripe. That's more true with later ripening varieties, like Fuji. With early season apple varieties, like Gala, , they may be ready to eat before the seeds turn brown.

Fruit drop. When a few good, healthy apples drop to the ground, the apples on the tree are nearly mature. The taste test never fails! When an apple becomes slightly softer and tastes sweet and juicy, it is mature. Some varieties, such as Delicious, become sweeter in storage; but that's different from ripening. The Iodine starch test. An apple is cut horizontally through the core and sprayed with a mild iodine solution.

Since the iodine turns the cells containing starch dark, unripe apples turn dark, ripe apples remain white. Penn State has a page that has more information about the iodine apple ripeness test. The starch index test does not work for pears, peaches and other fruits.

As apples begin to ripen, starch breaks down into sugars in the core first and then the cortex. Early stages of ripening correspond with starch breakdown in the core. You should make sure to remove one-year-old, tall-growing upright shoots, which are also known as water sprouts. Be careful though! You can see from the harvest calendar graphic 1 that apples should generally be harvested between late summer and late October.

The exact time to harvest them depends on two things. The first one is the weather conditions throughout the entire harvest year, with sunny days being the most important as these have a significant impact on how sweet the apple is.

The second thing is the variety of apple. Apples are generally sorted into maturity classes based on when they are ready to be picked and ready to be eaten. Autumn apples such as Boskoop can be stored for longer — approximately six to eight weeks — without losing their taste. Just as not every flower on a tree blooms at the same time, not every fruit ripens at the same time either. You can easily determine whether your apples are ready to be picked using our handy criteria below:.

The reward for all your hard work and time spent caring for your apple trees comes in the form of harvesting the fruits. Make sure you separate the undamaged apples from damaged ones as soon as you harvest them so you can store the undamaged ones later.

The ripe apple should come away from the tree without any resistance. You can make harvesting easier by using an apple harvest bag or a special fruit picker with a telescopic handle image 2 to reach fruits that are higher up. You always need more than one picking session to get all of the apples from the tree at just the perfect level of ripeness. You should store your apples in a dark, cool place with a constant temperature of around four degrees Celsius.

Cellars or garages are particularly good options for this. The ideal store is somewhere dark, well-ventilated, and cool but frost-free. Most garages and sheds are ideal, while attics and basements should be avoided due to either excessive heat, lack of ventilation or low humidity. Check stored apples regularly and remove any that are going soft, brown or rotting.

You might like to consider processing your glut into store cupboard delicacies and home-made drinks. You can freeze apples by stewing washed chunks with a dash of water until they soften. Once ready, sieve and pour the stewed apples into containers, leaving a small space at the top as they will expand slightly when frozen, and pop into the freezer. You can also cut your fruits into thin slices then dry them out in a dehydrator to make a deliciously chewy and healthy snack.

Other ideas for excess apples include making preserves such as jellies, jams, chutneys and sauces. Or why not try your hand at making a refreshing apple juice, country wine or hard cider?

The apple really is an incredibly generous tree!