Healthy Fruit, Vol. 23, No. 19, September 22, 2015

Jon Clements, Author (unless otherwise noted) and Editor


Contents

Upcoming meetings

The way I see it and apple maturity report

Insects

Diseases

Horticulture

Guest article

Facebook Me

Youtu.be

Useful links


Upcoming meetings

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 way I see it and apple maturity report

We are kind of in-between mid-season apples like McIntosh, Gala, Honeycrisp, etc. and late-season apples such as Macoun, Golden Delicious, Cortland, and Empire. (Although I know Cortland and Macoun are being actively picked and marketed.) McIntosh apples destined for any kind of long-term storage should be harvested by the end of this week for sure. After that, it's all for short-term storage or immediate sales. Honeycrisp should be pretty much done now, although Retain-treated Honeycrisp may be ongoing. Cortland and Macoun will get better over the next 7 days. Empire should wait until next week for sure. Pre-harvest fruit drop has generally been mininal, although some significant drop has been noted on Honeycrisp and McIntosh, which is no big surprise.

Generalized target maturity parameters are: % red color, >50%; firmness, >14 lb.; soluble solids, >12; DA, 0.6 to 0.4 for Honeycrisp and Gala, does not work for McIntosh; starch index, 4-6. All apple maturity data from UMass Cold Spring Orchard, Belchertown, MA unless otherwise noted.

Note this will be the last Healthy Fruit for 2015, thanks for subscribing, and we hope it helped you produce a successful tree fruit crop in 2015. Note that updates -- including apple maturity reports -- are always available at http://umassfruit.com

JC

date Cultivar pre-harvest drop fruit diameter inches color % red firmness lbs soluble solids DA Index starch index comments  
22-September Empire none 2.9 70 19.8 11.2 1.44 2.8 still green, wait another week and test again (do not harvest!)  
22-September Macoun some 3.2 75 17.1 12.4 1.5 3.9 (2.5-7) typical Macoun, variable maturity, some loose on tree, large fruit have watercore; pick over next week
22-September Rubinstar Jonagold nil 3.45 80 15.9 13.2 0.79 5.3 (4-7) ready for first pick based on color development; harvest over next 7-10 days
22-September Golden Glory (DS-165) none 3.2 NA 17.7 13.5 1.38 4.5 a nice Golden Delicious type apple, however, not sure if it is available any longer; maybe a little earlier than Golden Delicious, wait another week to pick
21-September Morning Mist Fuji none 3.2 90 13.9 12.7 0.86 6.5 one of the nicer early Fuji strains, ready to harvest
21-September McIntosh
some-significant 3.25 75 14.8 12.2 1.62 5.6 ReTain treated, but need to be harvested ASAP, right on schedule
18-September Lindamac
McIntosh
some 3.1 90 14.9 11.4 1.47 4.8 (4-6) ready to pick ASAP, heavy crop, disappointing size
18-September Blondee none 3.0 NA 17.7 10.9 0.34 4.5 (2-7) nice, but surface defects easily seen; small if not adequately thinned, and quality (sugar) suffers too; very nice apple if can grow large
18-September Redcort Cortland none 3.4 85 16.5 11.5 1.61 3.2 being harvested, does not starch test well, still pretty green; economically ripe but could use another week
17-September Honeycrisp nil 3.7 50 barely 12.2 12.1 0.72 7.3 large, on the green side, bitter pit, flavor good though; what happens when you crop 2nd-leaf trees; can probably wait another week (on these at least) to pick unless starts dropping
11-September McIntosh some 3.1 60 15.7 11.1 1.77 4 (3.5-6.5) ReTain treated  

Insects

Nothing to report this week...


Diseases

Nothing to report this week...


Horticulture

Nothing new to report this week...


Guest article

No guest article this week...


Facebook Me

Follow me (jmcextman) on FB: https://www.facebook.com/jmcextman


Youtu.be


Useful links

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)

Ag-Radar

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)


This is the last Healthy Fruit this year. Thanks for subscribing, and we hope it helped you produce a successful tree fruit crop in 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.