You can pick them once they are fully colored and ripen them inside. The best time to pick for maximum quality is after they soften. But that can lead to heavy losses. If you think they won't be soft ripe on the tree for a few weeks, this is too early. About one week before soft ripe is OK. More than that and quality may suffer.

Hi
Thanks for your comments....they are still green and smallish - my only worry is that I wont get any as a number of them have devloped blemishes and some have been falling. Do you think mid July is a good time for this?

There isn't much you can do but wait, if you pick them now they will be worthless. Dennis gives about as early as they can be picked. I prefer to leave mine on until they are a bit soft on the tree, then they will develop the maximum flavor. Tonight I picked some Puget Gold and Afghanistan, yum!

Scott

Pick them when they are ready, otherwise they just don't taste as good and you might as well purchase them from a supermarket and not grow your own. I am picking gold kist and blenheim right now.

I picked several hunza today... They were great... I could have let them hang longer, but who knows about the birds/squirrels.

{{gwi:95088}}

Mine just turned Orange but they are small. I do see a couple on the ground and I do have birds. Should I wait til the get bigger?