Jon Clements, Author (unless otherwise noted) and Editor
Note: for 2015, we have five Massachusetts orchard locations subscribed to AR: Belchertown, Groton, Phillipston, Stow and Sutton. The website for looking at AgRadar for these locations is: http://extension.umaine.edu/ipm/ag-radar-apple-sites/. What follows is for the Belchertown location.
Preliminary McIntosh harvest date forecasts
The Michigan formula estimates that non-spur McIntosh will reach starch-index 4.0 and start the optimum harvest window for long term storage on Saturday, September 5. Using the Hudson Valley NY (Cornell) formula, McIntosh maturity is forecast to reach starch index 6.0 in Belchertown, MA on Wednesday, September 23, which is the end of the optimum harvest window for long term storage. To delay single pick harvest up to 7 to 10 days, apply ReTain 21 to 28 days prior to beginning of expected harvest date for untreated fruit. To delay fruit maturity and improve storage potential of later picked apples (2nd, 3rd, 4th picks), apply ReTain 7 to 14 days prior to beginning of expected harvest date for untreated fruit. This later timing will not delay the start of harvest (1st pick), but will delay maturity for later picks. Date to apply ReTain to delay first harvest for apples without treatment would be ready for storage harvest on September 5 is from Saturday August 8 to August 15. Date to apply ReTain to delay maturity for 2nd, 3rd or 4th pick of those apples, without delaying start of harvest maturity, is from Saturday August 22 to August 29.
New England Vegetable & Fruit Conference, December 15-17, 2015, Radisson Hotel - The Center of New Hampshire, Manchester, NH. http://www.newenglandvfc.org
For more information and updates, see Upcoming Events or contact Jon Clements, 413-478-7219.
The primary reason for getting this Healthy Fruit out is to give you an apple maturity update. In a nutshell, I don't see anything terribly out of whack here, however, the dry, rather hot weather may put some stress on trees and affect maturity, i.e., push it along. (I would be running some trickle irrigation on heavily cropped dwarf trees until they get picked.) McIntosh and Honeycrisp harvest should get underway in earnest after Labor Day. I have not noted (yet) any significant drop issues. Soon it will be all hands on deck and full steam ahead...
JC
| date | Cultivar | pre-harvest drop | fruit diameter inches | color % red | firmness lbs | soluble solids | DA Index | starch index | comments | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31-August | Zestar! | nil | 3.5 | 65 | 12.8 | 12.7 | 0.45 | 5.5 | Second pick ongoing, touch of watercore, reaching end of peak, need to harvest ASAP |  |
| 31-August | Honeycrisp | none (yet) | 3.4 | 55 | 15.6 | 11.7 | 0.62 | 4.7 | Reddest fruit, barely ready to start harvest, but by end of week or Labor Day, yes; please resist picking now, wait for better maturity/quality next week |  |
| 31-August | Buckeye Gala | none | 2.9 | 95 | 19.2 | 11.3 | 1.07 | 3.5 | immature despite being fully red, need a week of heat (at least) then test again |  |
| 31-August | Ginger Gold | few | 3.4 | 0 | 17.5 | 13.3 | 0.55 | 3.5 | should be near end of harvest (does not starch test well), very nice quality, large fruit, some moldy core |  |
| 31-August | Akane | nil | 2.9 | 85 | 15.5 | 10.4 | 0.55 | 6.5 | heavy crop on these trees impacts sugar and quality, pick ASAP |  |
| 31-August | Lindamac McIntosh | few | 3.0 | 80 | 16 | 10.7 | 1.74 | 3.4 | still very green, should be starch index 4, wait a week before testing again or harvest please |  |
Nothing new this week, all is well I think...until it bites!
Continue to maintain fungicide coverage for apple varieties harvested in mid-late September to keep them from getting sooty blotch and fly speck. Dry weather has reduced the risk, however, morning fog, dew, and humidity can cause the fungus to grow still.
Nothing original from me here, but, I just ran across these two articles in New York Fruit Quarterly: Postharvest Fruit Quality and Storage Life in Relation to Mineral Nutrients and Calcium Nutrition and Control of Calcium Related Disroders. Both good reads.
No guest article this week...
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Index of Healthy Fruit (2015, 2014)
UMass Fruit Advisor: http://umassfruit.com
Scaffolds Fruit Journal: http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/scafolds/
Network for Environment and Weather Applications (NEWA): http://newa.cornell.edu
New England Apple Decision Support System maps (experimental)
Follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/jmcextman) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/jmcextman)
UMass Vegetable & Fruit IPM Network (on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/umassipmteam)
The next Healthy Fruit-Apple Maturity Report will be published on Tuesday, September 8, or thereabouts, 2015. As always feel free to get in touch with any member of the UMass Fruit Team (http://extension.umass.edu/fruitadvisor/team-members) if you have questions or comments.