First frost/ripening (newbie question)

9 years ago

Please forgive me if this is an incredibly stupid question but its driving me nuts so I have to ask... I'm trying to decide which apples and asian pears to buy (my first venture into growing fruit). My first frost is in late Sept. so I am assuming I need to get a variety that ripens before then. Right? There are apple trees all over the place here and they still have a ton of apples on them. Are those apples still ripening? Or has the cold halted the ripening process and they are now just hanging out, waiting to be picked? The days are in the high 60s to low 70s but the nights are consistently in the (very) low 30s. If the apples can tolerate that cold weather and continue ripening then how do I know how late is too late for ripening?

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Comments (5)

mrsg47
9 years ago
Dear shine, its not a stupid question. However, the information you are looking for is usually in the description of the apple tree variety you will buy. There are summer apples that ripen the end of july, beginning of august. Early, mid and late season apples. In your zone you should be able to grow many, many varieties and selections allowing you pick them when you wish. Mrs. G
shine0216
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you for taking the time to respond but that didn't answer my question :( I am aware of that info. What I'm looking for is how does a frost affect unripe apples on the tree. Are they toast after being hit by a frost? Or can they still finish ripening and be no worse for the wear? My tomatoes can't handle a frost. My kale can. What about my apples? I thought they were tender like tomatoes and a frost would ruin them. My husband is saying they are more like kale in that they continue producing through light frost and, in fact, taste better for it.
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alan haigh
9 years ago
Most varieties take a light frost fine- apparently Honeycrisp may be an exception, based on a thread running now.

I don't harvest my late varieties until very hard frost is predicted and some varieties stay firm even after a 22 degree night or several. My Pink Ladies and many of my Goldrush will be harvested about the first or second week of Nov although I expect our first frost Sun. night.

So, light frosts are fine for the vast majority of apples but how far below this a variety can take take is probably about the sugar content and denseness of the fruit, but specific guidelines are very hard to come by. If it has been researched I can't find the info. The only research about Honeycrisp is concerning storage temps.
shine0216
Original Author
9 years ago
Perfect! That extends my apple season by quite a bit :) So I should be ok choosing a variety that ripens in early October rather than stopping in mid Sept. Thank you! Can I assume asian pears are the same way? Or are they more sensitive to frost?
mamuang_gw
9 years ago
I guess so. I have a Korean Giant. It's a late Asian pear. It starts ripening around early Oct in my orchard.

Now, it's 10/16 and we've had light frost 3 times already. I harvested them through each frost and did not see any damage.

I still have a few on the tree. We have not had hard frost yet.

I do not know about a long term effect since we usually eat them all by the end of Oct.