North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

The question of when to pick any given variety has no simple answer.  For late varieties, which I consider my most important because they carry me through winter, it can be a bit tricky. 

 

If a variety is high-brix like Goldrush or Fuji, they don't seem to freeze as easily and can take temps down into the low 20's F. it seems, although I haven't researched it and I'm not sure of the actual cutoff.  I've just noticed that unpicked fruit of these two holds its texture for surpringly deep into fall.

 

I would never pick Goldrush early here as even ripe ones store very well and have a much richer flavor IMO.  Something like Jonagold and many other varieties need to be picked a bit green to store well.  My storage Jonagolds are almost like a different apple than the tree-ripened ones, tarter and not as rich, but very good.

 

It's hard to know without experience, the requirement of any given variety, so the time to experiment is just as the trees start bearing.  Pick some earlier and some later and see what happens.