Show horticultural facts RIGHT STAGE TO PICK FRUIT mature but not overripe apples best for storage experience best harvest guide prepared by the united states department of agriculture A large at ihunt of 0 fruit reaching the market each season Is greatly impaired in quality by being picked either cither too early or too late lalo tills this mistake Is caused byn misunderstanding on the part of many growers as to when the trait fruit should be picked and by the failure to interpret correctly under field conditions the factors indicating di the proper stage of maturity well informed growers gr are often careless in observing the proper picking time permitting other oilier farm work the hie condition of the market or other factors to postpone the harvest characteristics seasonal variations ar lations cultural practices and other factors affect the maturity of apples and it Is difficult to lay down lilly any thed and invariable rules to determine termine the t lie proper stage for harvesting there are however certain indications of ripeness such as normal bolor color of the seeds and the ease with ith which the stems separate from the spurs these will enable any grower with some practice to reco recognize the alie proper stage the amount of red Is usually the basis for judging the time of picking red and striped varieties lu in a majority of cases noL normally mally colored fruit of such varieties Is ready to harvest if it has attained the proper size and separates readily from the spurs fruit Is not really ready to pick when it clings to the spurs so tightly that the hie stem stein must be pulled out or the spurs broken red color however Is not always it a reliable index as the amount of color varies with the season the size of the crop the vigor and age of the tree soll soh conditions and other factors fruit that Is harvested in an immature condition Is inclined to scald in storage and in extreme cases may shrivel on the other land hand if it Is allowed to become overripe on the trees the length of time it will keep in storage Is reduced greatly some rarie varieties rie ties nhen overripe crack in the blo blossom ell end and many drop badly 4 1 kam f 15 1 41 1 1 1 t XE 5 IN 0 TA 4 1 i RM t fruit Is not ready to pick arion it clings to the spur so tightly that the stems must be pulled out or the spur broken the grower must study each variety to get the best insults in storage and in the market an exception must be made I 1 in it the case of summer apples as they are not intended for storage in order that these arlet les may be permitted to ripen fully it Is a common practice in certain sections to mulch the ground under the tree quite heavily with straw and to allow them to drop rather than to pick them it Is also customary to thin out the larger apples of later varieties for cooking purposes as soon as they become large enough to meet the demands of the market most growers 1 in all sections remove oil 11 the lite fruit from tile the trees at one picking mary many however make two or more pickings during the season especially when the fruit Is not uniformly fo lullY of gond color but Is otherwise of high quill quality ty the advisability of making more than one olae picking depends upon the extent to which the size and color of the fruit are affected by the load tile the apples on tile the outside of the tree especially the larger and bet ter colored pec linens are removed by UK tho first picking g 0 o permit the limbs to lift and ex poe the uncolored fl fruit alt to lo lite sun tills thinning al also s 0 t tends ends to br bring ng about fin an increase Inci tricie ease ae in size ot of tile llie fruit on oil the lie tree in tile cour course coure e if a week or ten da days y s the second picking Is made when tile the remainder of tile crop usually Is removed in a deiy few instances more than lion two pickings are arc made |