Apple Picking Pointers

How do you know if the apples you pick are going to be the best?

Here are several tips from my personal experience, living in the Ohio Valley, and from www.ohioapples.com

Since the sun hits the tree's surface first, the apples on the outside perimeters of the tree tend to be the ripest, and therefore the sweetest choices.

Find out from the cultivator what the correct color for the ripened apples on the trees you have chosen to pick from. Not all apples will turn red when ripe. Two common varieties are Granny Smith and Golden Delicious.

Apples are not like mangoes and other soft skinned fruit. Pick firm apples without bruises and wormholes. Place them gently in your basket. Don't throw them or drop them in. This will bruise not only the apple you put in the basket, but all the apples underneath. Bruised apples rot more quickly, and, as the saying goes, "one rotten apple spoils the whole bunch."

Apples keep best in a cool, dry place, like a basement or a storage refrigerator set at over 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Do not wash the apples before placing them in storage. Excess moisture can rot them more quickly.

My family has an unorthodox method of picking apples. Traditionally, apple trees are pruned in the late fall after the leaves have fallen and the sap is down. The limbs which grow vertically are lopped off and the trunk is sealed to prevent moisture loss.

We have decided to let the vertical branches grow after picking until the next harvest season and cut the branches down that have ripe apples on them. It is a little early to prune, but the tree doesn't seem to suffer harm. And the apples come to us.

The lower branches can be picked easily. Only a few apples remain out of reach, and we can either climb the tree to reach them, or use a ladder placed securely on the ground.

Here are some interesting facts from www.ohioapples.com

"Apple trees take four to five years to produce their first fruit. "

Johnny Appleseed was a real person. Drawings of him show him carrying a bag full of apple seeds. He even visited my home, Jefferson County, Ohio. His real name was John Chapman. He was born in 1774.

Although there are 8000 known varieties of apples throughout the world, only 100 species are grown commercially in the United States.

If you cut an apple laterally through the core, you will see a star in the center.www.ohioapples.com.