PICKING & STORAGE TIPS
Tips for picking:
Apples are grown on short, condensed stems called spurs. These short, wrinkly-appearing branches are what produce the apples year after year so if you break one off, you are reducing the fruit-growing potential of your tree for its entire life.
Be gentle when picking apples. Hold the apple and bend it upwards to remove the apple from the tree. If it does not come off, give a twist.
Apples bruise, especially as they get more ripe. Even holding a ripe apple too firmly can bruise it. Do not drop apples into bags or boxes or they will surely bruise. Bruised apples will not store well and will cause undamaged apples to spoil sooner when stored with them. The same goes for any damaged apples.
Apples give off ethylene gas as they ripen and will cause other fruits and vegetables to spoil or sprout.
Tips for storing:
If you want to store apples for as long as possible, you should pick them a little on the green side. Pick varieties that are known to store well. They should have no damage to them (cuts, bruises, punctures, etc) and should be free from insects and disease.
The ideal way to store apples is to cool them to around zero degrees Celsius as soon as possible after picking them and store them in a well ventilated area with humidity in the range of 85-95%. If apples are frozen they will spoil quickly after thawing.
Very large apple producers also have controlled atmospheres where they replace the oxygen in the storage chamber with nitrogen gas to reduce cellular respiration.
INTERESTING FACTS & HISTORY
We have over 20 varieties of apples in our Saskatchewan orchard. Some ripen early in the season (end of August) and some ripen late (late September). We have an apple that would suit every taste and texture preference.
We have apples similar to Gala, MacIntosh, and Golden Delicious. Whether you enjoy a more tart apple or super sweet, soft texture or really crunchy, we have an apple for you.
They store really well and are great for fresh eating or cooking. They range in size from a large softball to a plum. They are all different colours from green to yellow to all shades of red.
Our cold, clean, crisp Prairie conditions are the perfect recipe for fantastic apples. We do not have a long growing season but we have more hours of sunlight on the Prairies than just about anywhere in the world. Taste a Prairie Apple. Taste the Prairie Difference.
Remember: An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Did you know?
All apple trees are clones (with the exception of breeding stock). Since apples cross-pollinate, their genetic recombination is very large and means that daughter trees which grow from seeds will be completely different from parent trees. Most of these differences will not be in a good way. Thousands of seeds can grow into trees and there may not be one tree that produces a good apple - plus it takes 10-15 years in order for these trees grown from seeds to mature into trees that can produce fruit. In order to get trees that are identical to the parent plant buds or scions are taken from the parent tree and grafted onto an apple rootstock. This has the added benefit of more mature growth and, therefore, faster blooming and fruit production because the buds taken from the parent tree are more mature buds (not juvenile buds that were present when the tree was first growing from seeds).
Apple trees (or other fruit trees for that matter) will not produce fruit if they are over-fertilized with nitrogen fertilizer. They will grow lots of leaves and branches but no fruit if they receive too much nitrogen. Nitrogen is for leafy material (like grass) and phosphorus is for flowers and fruit.
Some apple trees will grow a large amount of fruit one year and, if the fruit is not thinned, they will bear little or no fruit the following year. This is a condition called biennial bearing. The trees have expended too much energy growing so much fruit that they have no energy to set flower buds for the following year.
Flower buds are produced in the fall. It is important to look after your trees all year round.
Apples benefit from cross pollination. You will get more fruit and bigger fruit if you have 2 or more varieties within an area that flower at the same time.
An apple is ripe if you cut it open and the seeds are brown. If the seeds are white, it isn't ripe yet.
