I like them fully ripe and they should snap off easily I think. If they are as sweet as you want them to be then why not eat them now. How dark are the seeds?

It took me years of fighting the birds to find out mine didn't ripen here until about Nov 1. The flesh gets a fairly dark yellow when really ripe. Agree with hman, if they taste ripe enough to suit, then they must be ripe.

It hadn't occurred to me to check the seeds. Seeds are brown.

Nov, huh? I think I will go and pick most of them and get them into storage and leave some so I can check and see what happens to them as the weeks go by.

I'm just afraid to lose them if I wait too long. My mystery inherited tree has great fruit this year but it hangs on the tree about 30 minutes when it gets ripe. As soon as it is ready, it is off the tree and it's tender, so when it drops, it bruises. I've lost a bunch of them.

I just picked the Fujis. They are snapping off the tree today.

How can you already get fujis? Mine don't ripen until then end of October. All sorts of varieties are ripening for me right now but fuji is not one of them.

Axel, everything is out of whack this year. Grapes are early, Asian pears are late, peaches were early, apricots were late.

I've already picked half my Bosc pears and they shouldn't be ready for another month.

We had freezes as late as June 15th and the apples and pears bloomed late. So they matured fruit extra fast this year.

I missed most of my grapes, thinking they wouldn't be ripe for another month. The birds got all but half a bucket of them, and the ones I did save were fully ripe. I'd only peeked under the leaves to see how many bunches were coming along and all I saw was empty stems.

My Fujis are just getting to ripe now, I am surprised yours are already there. I mainly use the color as a guide. I greatly prefer them completely ripe so I let them hang as long as I can. Its a pretty good apple if let to hang.

Scott

Scot, how long can you allow them to hang on the tree?

Not that I would have dared to leave mine any longer than necessary. The birds were really going after them.

This is the worst year for birds that I've ever seen. They must be starving,. They are attacking fruit they've never bothered before and going after it long before it is even thinking about getting ripe.

I go by the color of the skin, they are whitish in the background when not ripe and get just a touch yellowish as they ripen. I don't remember the exact colors but when I am there staring at my tree I have a pretty good memory.

I am harvesting some apples early this year due to extensive bird damage. Overall I have never had more non-moth/curc damage on my apples than this year, every critter is after them from birds and bees to deer and squirrels.

Scott