should I be harvesting my apples?

[soupdragon321]

Hi, we recently moved into a new house with a mature garden. There is a small apple tree - think its a dwarf one?- and the apples are very big - lots have fallen onto the grass. My friend said theres no way they are ready to harvest yet - should be in September - but honestly some are bigger than you see in the shops! I'd hate to waste them by not picking them at the right time. We are not gardeners and have no clue! We also seem to have lot of damsons and plums, the damsons look very dark already...

If they come away easily if you turn the Apple on the branch they are ready. Some apples are an early variety. If you have to tug leave them.

Taste the damsons and see if they're nice?

Windfalls will be fine to stew for crumbles. Are they cookers or eaters?

We’ve been told they’re definitely eaters. Will give one a gentle tug and see what happens!

Still stew the windfalls btw

Pick an apple and a plum and try them. If they taste good they are ripe! Plums will give slightly if they are ripe; with damsons it's harder to tell. If the apples are hard and taste sour they need longer. Also check the pips in the apple - unripe pips are often white.

Lots of fruit is ripening early this year because of the warm weather in early spring - we have blackberries already! And our mirabelle plums are nearly there too...

Will give one a gentle tug and see what happens! No! Don't tug. When they're ripe, if you put your hand under and lift the apple up and slightly round, it will come off.

The very earliest apples do ripen in August, but it still seems a bit early. But if you have eating-sized apples falling then it sounds as if they are ready. Not to be confused with the "June drop" when the tree decides how many apples it can support this year, and drops all the rest.

The early-ripening apples aren't keepers - they need to be eaten within a couple of weeks, whereas some apples which are harvest in October/November ripen off the tree, and can still be eaten up to the end of March.

Ooh interesting! Thanks

If your plums/damsons are very small and dark purple already, it might be that they have plum moth, which causes them to ripen early. Try pulling one apart and if there's a pink maggot in there, or brown/black residue near the stone it's probably plum moth. Sadly all ours seem to have this (mostly self seeded I think, we only bought the house last March) but planning to cut down and dig out all of them in autumn, wait a couple of years and then try planting some more plums etc. No idea why they're so affected. Known lots of people with plum trees and they've never had this problem!

We have one apple tree that drops its fruit about now - small apples that don't store. Does this every year - I've forgotten what variety it is (I think it's got Bath in the title) so some trees are ready 2-3 months earlier than the main crop which is usually September time.

Are you in the south? I can't imagine anything ripening before August in Yorkshire.
www.orangepippin.com/varieties/apples/beauty-of-bath

Depending on variety apples ripen from Aug through to December - except the latest ripening apples have to be picked in Sep/Oct before the frosts and allowed to complete their ripening in store. That adds to the perception that apples normally ripen in September - of course some of those, although picked, aren't actually ripe.

There are summer apple varieties. We had one of these trees in our last house. They ripened in July/August every year and were done by the end of August

UK Summer apples don't keep as well as Autumn ones as a whole and they tend to be a bot softer but they are fine for eating and cooking with

Just found the ones we had in our garden (never looked them up before) . They were discovery apples www.gardenfocused.co.uk/fruitarticles/apples/variety-discovery.php

Yup - wikipedia confirms beauty of Bath.