Harvesting Bramley apples

neilbradburn · September 2020

Hi all,
We have a very healthy crop of good-sized and apparently ripe Bramley's this year and want to harvest them for storage. I gather now is a good time to do so. However, the stalks are very thick (they are almost spurs) and the normal life-and-twist harvesting action causes unclean separation of the apple - ie. Either the stalk totally pulls aways from the apple exposing the 'hold', or leaves come away with the apple. Does this sound right, or what could I be doing wrong? It sounds like they should definitely be harvest ready by now and their size seems to back this up.

Any help from an experienced Bramley grower would be much appreciated!
Kind regards.

Liriodendron · September 2020

I wonder if they are not in fact quite ready to harvest. If apples don't separate cleanly from the tree, it's usually an indication they should be left longer. If you're starting to get windfall fruit, this is a pretty good sign they're ready to pick. In Ireland, Bramleys are often not ready to harvest until late October, so where the tree is growing will have a considerable bearing on when its fruit is ready.

Ferdinand2000 · September 2020

I have a not quite similar issue with my bright red eaters, whatever they are. In that several fall off at once sometimes.

I am wondering about snipping them off with sharp secateurs.

neilbradburn · September 2020

Hi lirodendron,
I do wonder if you are right. However, I am not sure if Bramley's are actually picked 'pre-ripe' as the aim is not to sweeten them up, but to have a good tasty, sour cooking apple that stores well.

Conditions-wise, they are grown in a full sun location in the apple hotspot of Kent. Also, we've had a hot and well-advanced summer, so I believe they should be ahead of the normal schedules this year - which say to pick before mid-sept.

Kind regards.

neilbradburn · September 2020

Hi ferdinand2000,
That was my thought also. I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing and don't waste a year of care and patience :-)
Kind regards.

Ferdinand2000 · September 2020

neilbradburn said:

Hi ferdinand2000,
That was my thought also. I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing and don't waste a year of care and patience :-)
Kind regards.

I am ńo authority on this. That is just what I am doing.

Dovefromabove · September 2020

@neilbradburn ... slice your apples across the equator and check the pips ... the apple is ripe when the pips are dark brown/black.

Many commercially grown Bramleys are picked too soon as supermarkets don’t like the larger fruit ... however unripe apples have lower calcium levels and may not store well developing bitter pit ... commercial growers can use a proprietary treatment to prevent deterioration of unripe fruit in store. But the result is the hard unripe green Bramley we find in supermarkets ☹️ . A ripe Bramley should have a more yellow/gold tinge and rosy patches 😊

This may help https://www.theorchardproject.org.uk/blog/when-to-pick-apples/

This is why we get those hard canon balls in the shops
https://apples.ahdb.org.uk/post-harvest-section4-link5.asp 😢

neilbradburn · September 2020

Hi dove,

Many thanks for the response!

I cut open one of the apples the other day and it seemed okay - dark pips. However, I should do a bit more sampling. Also, the fruits are yellowing up.

Thanks for the links. I also found those before I posted this - which is where I got the Mid-september cutoff as a harvest date from. However, the second link seems to contradict itself on whether smaller, less ripe apples store better (more calcium?) or worse :-) to quote it:
"There is a tendency for increasingly earlier harvesting of Bramley prompted by concerns that fruit may be too large if left on the tree. Larger fruit have lower calcium levels and are less likely to store well. Picking dates for Bramley need to be considered in conjunction with mineral composition and storage conditions.

Early harvesting of Bramley apples that are critically low in calcium is likely to aggravate bitter pit development. However, delaying the harvesting of low calcium fruit will increase susceptibility to low temperature and senescent breakdown."

More sampling ahoy. And darn, I'll need to bake some more yummy apples :-)

Kind regards.

Dovefromabove · September 2020

Hi @neilbradburn

"....Early harvesting of Bramley apples that are critically low in calcium is likely to aggravate bitter pit development. However, delaying the harvesting of low calcium fruit will increase susceptibility to low temperature and senescent breakdown...."

But it goes on to say "...Increasingly Bramley apples for long-term storage are harvested from late August onwards."(This is to avoid the apples growing 'too big' for the supermarkets.) "The fact that early harvesting dramatically accentuates the development of superficial scald is of little consequence as long as fruit are treated after harvest SmartFreshSM..."

Hopefully your apples aren't low in calcium, and I take it you're not going to be treating your apples with 'SmartFreshSM'?

If your apples are golden and the pips are dark , it sounds as if they're about ready.

wild edges · September 2020

I just harvested a couple of boxes of Bramley Seedlings but they were dropping off the tree from the slightest touch. There's a bumper crop this year and some are the size of a good sized grapefruit. That early good weather and late rain had been perfect for apples this year

Skandi · September 2020

We just took all the apples off our tree, we had the same issues, some did not want to come off at all and took the spur off with them, other fell off while they were being looked at.

We picked ours because out of 2 buckets worth only 2 apples are not damaged one way or another, so many small holes in them all, some look like mechanical damage from wind, others look like curious bird pecks and all are full of earwigs, "shudders"

Harvesting Bramley apples

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