We checked the maturity of apples growing at the Alson H. Smith, Jr. AREC on September 16.
With clear days, dry conditions, and cool nights we couldn’t ask for a better stretch of weather. Many growers are starting to pick their main cultivars, including Red Delicious and Golden Delicious. Data from the AREC show that both of these cultivars are still in an ideal window for long-term storage. Jonagolds and Empires are entering into the ideal harvest window. Idareds and Romes are probably a week or so away, and Yorks are probably two weeks away from their ideal harvest maturity.
Below are all of our harvest data for 2014. Click on this sentence to learn more about the different maturity indices.
| Maturity Report 2014, Virginia Tech | |||||||||||
| Sample Collection Date | Cultivar | Location | Number of Orchards Tested (10 Fruit Each) | Background Color (1-4)* | Red Color (%) | Firmness (lbs) | Soluble Solids (ºBrix) | Starch-iodine Index (1-8)** | Fruit Diameter (inches) | Fruit wt. (g) | Ethylene (ppm) |
| 8/18/14 | Gala (Crimson) | AHS JR AREC | 1 | – | 80.4 | 23.2 | 11.2 | 1.1 | 2.66 | 144 | 0.0 |
| 8/25/14 | Gala (Crimson) | AHS JR AREC | 1 | – | 93.2 | 20.0 | 13.3 | 3.4 | 2.79 | 162 | 0.4 |
| 8/25/14 | Gala (Buckeye) | AHS JR AREC | 1 | – | 98.7 | 21.6 | 14.9 | 4.0 | 2.79 | 172 | 1.6 |
| 8/18/14 | Golden Supreme | AHS JR AREC | 1 | 3.1 | – | 18.1 | 10.9 | 1.7 | 2.88 | 174 | 0.0 |
| 8/25/14 | Golden Supreme | AHS JR AREC | 1 | 2.6 | – | 16.9 | 11.5 | 2.6 | 2.82 | 166 | 0.0 |
| 8/25/14 | Golden Delicious | Winchester | 12 | 2.2 | – | 18.6 | 12.4 | 1.5 | 2.85 | 166 | 0.0 |
| 9/16/14 | Golden Delicious | Winchester | 2 | 2.9 | – | 16.3 | 13.5 | 4.6 | 2.82 | 161 | 0.0 |
| 8/18/14 | Honeycrisp | AHS JR AREC | 1 | – | 53 | 18.5 | 11.8 | 1.1 | 3.27 | 232 | 0.0 |
| 8/25/14 | Honeycrisp | AHS JR AREC | 1 | – | 55 | 15.8 | 13.0 | 1.8 | 3.36 | 247 | 4.9 |
| 8/25/14 | Red Delicious (Scarlet Spur) | Winchester | 1 | – | 91 | 19.2 | 10.9 | 1.3 | 2.90 | 179 | 0.0 |
| 8/25/14 | Red Delicious (Red Chief) | Winchester | 2 | – | 80 | 19.3 | 10.6 | 1.2 | 2.92 | 182 | 0.0 |
| 8/25/14 | Red Delicious (Nured) | AHS JR AREC | 1 | – | 87 | 18.0 | 9.8 | 1.1 | 2.83 | 166 | 0.0 |
| 8/25/14 | Red Delicious (Redspur) | Winchester | 1 | – | 64 | 18.6 | 11.2 | 2.1 | 2.93 | 182 | 0.0 |
| 8/25/14 | Red Delicious (Ace) | AHS JR AREC | 1 | – | 95 | 19.7 | 10.8 | 1.0 | 2.78 | 160 | 0.0 |
| 8/25/14 | Red Delicious (Bisbee) | AHS JR AREC | 2 | – | 86 | 18.9 | 10.9 | 1.3 | 2.80 | 163 | 0.0 |
| 9/16/14 | Red Delicious (Nured) | AHS JR AREC | 1 | – | 97 | 17.0 | 11.7 | 2.4 | 2.83 | 167 | 0.9 |
| 9/16/14 | Red Delicious (Ace) | AHS JR AREC | 1 | – | 99 | 19.2 | 13.0 | 2.0 | 2.93 | 187 | 3.6 |
| 8/25/14 | Empire | AHS JR AREC | 3 | – | 64 | 18.8 | 11.7 | 1.6 | 2.82 | 148 | 0.0 |
| 9/16/14 | Empire | AHS JR AREC | 1 | – | 88 | 18.3 | 12.6 | 2.7 | 2.65 | 126 | 0.6 |
| 9/16/14 | Rome (Law) | AHS JR AREC | 1 | – | 92 | 21.7 | 12.2 | 3.0 | 2.92 | 163 | 0.3 |
| 9/16/14 | Rome (Taylor) | AHS JR AREC | 1 | – | 50 | 21.6 | 12.4 | 3.0 | 3.14 | 203 | 0.0 |
| 9/16/14 | York | AHS JR AREC | 2 | – | 80 | 23.8 | 11.1 | 1.3 | 2.90 | 161 | 0.0 |
| 9/16/14 | Jonagold | AHS JR AREC | 1 | – | 81 | 16.3 | 14.2 | 5.4 | 3.30 | 251 | 0.1 |
| 9/16/14 | Idared | AHS JR AREC | 1 | – | 61 | 15.2 | 12.9 | 2.0 | 3.00 | 180 | 0.0 |
| * 1 = green, 2 = light green, 3 = yellowish green, 4 = yellow. | |||||||||||
| ** 1 = 100% starch, 5 = 60% starch, 8 = 0% starch. | |||||||||||