North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[david.maxwell@dal.ca]

Last year I supplemented the methods suggested (basically taste and check of 
seed colour) 
with a starch-iodine test.  I have 52 different cultivars, and in most 
instances nobody locally 
had the slightest idea when they would ripen.  The standard starch-iopdine 
charts are 
cultivar-specific, but I arbitrarily took the point of roughly half staining 
as the measure of 
ripeness, and this seemed to correlate well with taste.  The other 
determinant is whether they 
will come away cleanly when picked, (lift and twist - if it doesn't come off 
in your hand, it isn't 
ripe.  Leave it for a bit.) This is particularly significant with cultivars 
which do not in fact ripen 
evenly, and require several pickings, (like Williams Pride).

Of more interest (or puzzlement) is how to judge this year.  We have had an 
unusually hot 
summer, and the commercial growers are talking of their apples ripening "10 
days" ahead of 
last year.  Some of my cultivars are indeed 10-14 days ahead, (Williams 
Pride), but some of 
them which ripened end September last year are falling in large numbers, and 
have brown 
seeds. (Difficult to tell by taste because they are cider apples , (Browns 
Apple), and pretty 
inedible at the best of times.)

> 
> How can I tell when to pick them? Probably I should pick some now,
> even if they aren't fully ripe, just to get some apples. You never
> know what critter will take an interest in the tree tomorrow, after
> all.
> 
> Thanks,
> Ginda 
> eastern MA, zone 6
>