When To Pick the Apples

Apples should be harvested when the fruit is fully colored for the variety. Red apples need a good red color while on other apples, the ground color is a good indication. It should show considerable yellowing and have firm, juicy, sweet flesh. Different varieties of apples have maturities ranging from mid summer until late fall. Color is not always a good indicator of maturity. Many highly colored apple varieties turn red long before they mature. Summer apples for fresh eating should taste good when picked. If picked prematurely, they have a bland, starchy taste with no sweetness nor flavor. Winter apples do not require frost to mature, but they have a higher sugar content and more flavor if they ripen when nights are cool. Hot temperatures interfere with flavor and sugar development in these apples. Red Delicious apples should be picked when mature. Ripe apples separate easily from the tree, and have dark seeds with an inside flesh that is a white or cream color, not green. Red Delicious apples improve with storage. Golden Delicious apples are never any better than the day you pick them. Let them stay on the tree long enough to develop a golden color and a sweet, mild flavor. Most other apples should be picked when they have good color, good flavor, and before they drop. Some varieties, such as McIntosh, drop prematurely, particularly in the warmer valleys and it is a struggle to get them to stay on the tree long enough to mature. Immature apples have an astringent, puckery taste and if picked prematurely will not ripen further, but shrivel and loose flavor. Earlier apples tend to ripen over an extended period and several pickings are required. Later maturing varieties ripen all at once. Harvest an apple by place your hand around the fruit then gently lift the fruit at a right angle. This separates the fruit from the spur but does not damage the spur so it will continue to produce fruit in future years. Store fruit separate from vegetables. Apples store easily in refrigerated or common storage if the temperature is cool enough. Winter apples such as Red Delicious and Rome Beauty store in ordinary crates or apple boxes. Once again, it is important to store high quality, sound produce. Golden Delicious apples shrivel in storage and are best stored in boxes lined with plastic bags. After placing the apples in the bag roll the bag loosely over the top and check them frequently to make sure they are not rotting from the extra moisture trapped by the plastic bag. Successful storage usually depends on creating a successful storage area. These range from pits in the garden to storage mounds made of straw or other material. Cellars are exceptionally good areas for storing many kinds of produce. If you would like more information on storing produce purchase "Home Storage of Fruits and Vegetables" at your local USU Extension Office. Additional hints on successful storage as well as root cellar construction are found in many other books. One excellent resource is Root Cellaring by Mike and Nancy Bubel, a Garden Way Publishing Book. The book is available through local book stores or can be ordered from Storey Communications Inc. Schoolhouse Road, Pownel, Vermont 05261. Another excellent book "The Harvest Gardener" by Susan McClure, is available from the same source. Choose healthy, blemish free specimens to store. They will store longer with a special cellar or other area to separate the fruits and vegetables to keep them from spoiling so consider constructing a storage area to solve these problems. Larry A. Sagers Regional Horticulturist Utah State University Extension Thanksgiving Point Office