Picking fruit at the proper stage of maturity is vital in orchard operations and the home garden.
Harvesting when convenient or when labor is available cannot be a guide to the proper picking time. All too often, the fruit of inferior quality, both for storage and the ultimate consumer, results from such practices.
Fruit harvested “too green” will likely develop storage diseases such as scald and bitter pit. Such fruit tends to fade, and its quality is impaired.
On the other hand, over-ripe fruit breaks down rapidly, is mealy, lacks high dessert quality, and is subject to soft scald in storage.
Factors In The Ripening Process Of Fruits
Several years ago, the United States Department of Agriculture studied the ripening process as it might point out maturity indices for the grower.
Among the factors that were considered were the following:
- An increase in the size of the fruit
- A change in the color of the seeds
- A change in the color of the unbrushed side of the fruit
- The development of the blush (red) color of red varieties
- Softening of the fruit
- Number of days from full bloom to maturity
- The ease of picking
After considering all of these indices for picking fruit at the proper stages of maturity, it was generally agreed that no one index could be used.
It was recommended that all of the various indices be used together to guide the grower in picking fruit at the right stage of maturity. It is also wise to keep this in mind.
That the right stage of maturity is not an arbitrary time but differs with the variety and the use for which the fruit is intended.
Peaches, for example, are generally picked at a more advanced stage of maturity if they are to be marketed close at home than if they are to be shipped a distance to market.
Pears are one of the few fruits that must be picked green regardless of whether they are to be used for a short time or are to be stored.
Harvesting Peaches
Peaches are usually of the best dessert quality when picked firm-ripe or tree-ripe. In Illinois, a few years ago, it was found that peaches were of good quality if picked to ripen 4 to 5 days after harvesting.
However, most folks prefer to pick peaches ripe enough to be used for culinary purposes the same day they are harvested.
The gauge usually employed in determining the picking time is the change of the ground, or green portion of the peach, to a cream-white on white-fleshed varieties and from green to greenish-yellow or orange-yellow on yellow-fleshed varieties.
Ease of picking is also a valuable index. With peaches, as with apples, “spot” picking or picking over the tree several times is considered advisable.
Gathering Pears
Pears must be picked when green because they become soft at the core if allowed to ripen on the tree. The size of the fruit is as good an index to use for the average grower as is a case of picking.
Occasionally, one will find an insect-infested pear ripening on the tree. This may seem like a simple and avoidable index of maturity for the remainder of the fruit on the tree, but it has some practical value. Usually, when one finds such fruit, it is time for the variety should be picked.
Bringing In The Apples
Apples are picked both for immediate use and storage. For either purpose, the time of picking should be the same. The change in ground color from leaf-green to light, greenish-yellow is a reliable index to picking.
However, some varieties like Baldwin, McIntosh, Jonathan, and Cortland will drop badly if allowed to remain on the trees to this stage.
Red strains of varieties complicate using changes in ground color as an index of maturity. Golden Delicious should be allowed to become a golden color before picking.
Green Golden Delicious apples do not change color after picking and are starchy and of poor quality if picked green. The red color and the case of picking may be used as indices but may only be reliable if used with others.
Determine The Picking Time
Judging from the good and bad points in using only one index to determine the picking time, it would seem wisest to combine all the indices.
These will include the degree of softness, ground color, surface color, dark color of seeds, size, firmness, and ease of picking.
In addition, the grower’s experience is of utmost value in determining the picking time. If the grower will cut an apple in two and cut a portion, he can, in part, determine whether or not he considers the fruit of high dessert quality for the specific variety.
44659 by J. Vernon Patterson