Apples

[oompah]

Back earlier in the year my neighbour recieved two bare rooted apple trees from some magazine.She gave me one of the trees which i planted it blossomed and now has reasonble size fruit, should i wait for later on when they are likely to be wind falls or how do i tell when they are ripe to pick.The neighbour lost the labels but the apples look a bit like cox's orange pippins.

 

[Deluks]

Give em a light tug, if they come off easily then they are ready.

 

[oompah]

Give em a light tug, if they come off easily then they are ready.

Just been out and tried that, they are pretty firm on the tree so obviously not ripe yet.If it is cox's i don't expect them to be ready until next month.

 

[HandyHands]

I've just made a batch of apple crumbles with the apples from my trees - I don't know the variety though, but I use the same "tug" test. The fruits have taken a hammering this year from tree rats, so its now open season on them

 

[shenks]

Tree rats... probably plenty of recipes out there - maybe you could have apple stuffed squirrel as a main course? There would be a certain sense of irony (or something) there too!

 

[damia-b]

To test apples, a "tug" is probably a bit strong. I was told to lift each apple until the stalk was horizontal and if it came away, it was ready. Mind you I feel that test misses some that are ready and usually exert a light pull as well. That means there are fewer lying on the grass the next day.