Anybody else have this issue? Are there mineral deficiencies as we'll that might account for incressed susceptibility?

Thanks

What about it don't you like? Taste, storage life, or ? I haven't found it objectionable, what little I've seen on my own fruit.

This begins a slight brown discoloration about 1/3" in from the surface.
At first it seems to have not effect on fruit taste or texture, but it progresses pretty quick into collapsing brown pulp. Storage life is gone. These are apples harvested in the last week.

Commercial growers rely on a lot of calcium sprays with this variety and still throw away a lot of the fruit. Without this, it seems they are more reliable if they get a fair amount of shade.

Soggy core breakdown shouldn't affect the fruit on the tree from what I read of Jean's guideline- it is a storage disorder. I think you should try calcium sprays, which is what I plan to do where I need to make Honeycrisp work. The variety isn't really worth growing here, IMO, but people love it and if a customer wants to pay for a more complicated spray sched. I will oblige.

Harvestman, I was planning to try calcium sprays this year, to deal with bitter pit problems I have seen on same tree. But it didn't happen, and allowing larger fruit set with the correspondingly smaller size, bitter pit issues were mostly resolved....or at least much improved. I believe I read last year somewhere about speculation regarding ca and soggy core as well.

I'm running storage tests now, with apples in cellar at 50 ish and in bottom half of fridge....which may well be too cold. So far this year it has been just apples from the fridge. Last year it was present at both locations.

Not mentioned in jeans link was a connection with allowing fruit to over ripen...I don't think I am doing that, but I certainly allow them to fully ripen.
I still have 1/3 of the crop on the tree. I just don't think it becomes a really good apple at our location unless I give them time.

We have had lots of cold frosty nights, but no hard freezes...

For long term storage apples must be picked at the right stage of maturity, too green for eating. If you let them ripen on the tree until they reach optimum eating stage they won't store very long.

Commercial growers use an iodine starch test. The pattern of starch conversion on the cut surface indicates the stage of maturity. I just try to pick a couple weeks earlier than for immediate consumption.

You probably already know this but thought I'd comment.

However this is to achieve long term storage capability and much of the crop is consumed before this becomes an issue, so I'm sure many growers aren't so concerned with long term storage at all. Are you sure growers put it in CA storage? The article suggests that this causes rapid breakdown of Honeycrisp.

Windfall, the fact that 38 degrees is recommended suggests that you may need to ripen the apples as quickly as possible. About all you can do to achieve this is keeping the trees very openly pruned- maybe even wiping out annual shoots in spring that aren't needed for spur renovation (and feeding the fruit) and repeating the process in mid-summer.

Eventually sports of earlier bearing Honeycrisp may become available. Meanwhile, Zestar is an awfully tasty apple.

Trees positioned to get dawn to dusk sun ripen there fruit more quickly than those in partial shade. An espalier on the south side of a house will also do the trick.

Adams County Nursery offers an early Honeycrisp that is 3-4 weeks ahead of regular Honeycrisp. I have no experience with it.

Harvestman...correct me if I'm wrong, but given the fact that we know these apples received frost coupled with rob's description of the tissue damage this sounds like a clear case of frost damage to me.
I just saw a photo of frost damaged apples cut in half the other day and it looked just like what windfall_rob describes. The photo was also Honeycrisp. As far as storage issue with HC. it stores just fine for me. though admittedly they don't seem to last too long here since my kids eat them every day. I am however thinking about my Goldrush and how I'm going to avoid frost damage before their harvest date of Nov. 10. My daughter yanked one off a week or so ago "by accident" and I cut it to taste it and it was awful,,,super tart. dry and a bit chalky still. I'm questioning whether I really have the season for it here.

fruitnut
I get a tiny bit of bitter pit on a few apples on my Honeycrisp too, and have considered the calcium sprays because the product is so cheap and easy to apply. I probably will next year.
Bitter pit is so easy to distinguish and really cannot be mistaken for anything else. particularly on HC since it is prone to it. I know you kinda figured that, but his description just sounds nowhere close to bitter pit.