Why picking at the right moment matters

Apples picked a week early will never develop the sweetness or aroma they should have, and apples left a week too long go mealy, drop from the tree and rot in store. The window between the two can be surprisingly narrow, especially with early varieties such as Discovery and Katy, which can turn from sharp and crisp to soft and floury in the space of a fortnight.

The good news is that you do not need laboratory equipment. A few simple tests, done on the tree, will tell you far more than the calendar. Even within one garden, a sunny south-facing branch will ripen days or even weeks ahead of fruit on a shaded, north-facing side of the same tree. Treat each tree, and often each branch, on its own merits.

Reading the colour of the fruit

Most gardeners look at the blush first, but the blush is the least reliable clue. A red-flushed apple can colour up beautifully while still hard and starchy. The useful signal is the background colour — the skin between the streaks and the flush.

• On a ripe apple, the background shifts from a firm grassy green to a paler, yellowish-green or creamy tone.
• Varieties such as Egremont Russet and Ashmead's Kernel give little colour change at all, so rely on feel and seeds instead.
• Bramley cooking apples are ready when the green lightens and the skin develops a faint yellow bloom, usually from late September onwards.
• Cox's Orange Pippin is ready when the yellow background shows clearly around the stalk cavity.

Look at the fruit in daylight rather than in deep shade, and check several apples from different parts of the tree before deciding.

The firmness test and the seed check

Cup an apple in your hand and press gently with your thumb near the stalk. A ripe apple gives very slightly under pressure; an unripe one feels like a cricket ball, and an overripe one yields almost like a soft tomato. This is a skill worth practising on a few spare fruits each season.

The most reliable test of all is the seed. Pick one apple that looks close to ready, cut it in half across the core, and look at the pips:

• White or pale cream seeds — the fruit is immature. Wait.
• Light brown seeds — nearly there, perhaps a few days off.
• Dark brown or near-black seeds — the apple is ripe and ready to pick.

As a final confirmation, taste a slice. If it is sweet, juicy and fragrant rather than sharp and watery, you have your answer. The old iodine starch test works too — a drop of iodine turning the flesh blue-black means starch remains, so the fruit is unripe — but a knife and a keen palate are usually enough.

The lift and twist: picking without damage

Never pull an apple straight off the branch. That tears the stalk from the spur and often brings a chunk of wood with it.

• Cup the apple in the palm of your hand, fingers underneath, and keep your fingertips clear of the skin.
• Lift the fruit gently upwards and give a slight twist. A ripe apple parts from the spur almost willingly, stalk intact.
• If it resists firmly, leave it and come back in two or three days.
• Keep the stalk attached. A fruit with its stalk stores far better than one with a torn cavity.

Pick into a padded basket or a proper picking bag rather than a rigid bucket, and never more than two layers deep. Work in dry conditions, once the morning dew has lifted, as damp fruit stores poorly.

Protecting spurs, buds and next year's crop

Apples are borne mostly on short, stubby spurs that take two or three years to develop, though tip-bearing varieties such as Bramley and Discovery also crop at the ends of young shoots. Every spur you damage this autumn is a cluster of blossom lost next spring.

Handle the branch with one hand while you pick with the other, supporting the wood rather than bending it. Do not use the fruit as a handle, and avoid tugging downward. Where fruit is clustered tightly, take the largest apple first to give the others room. Windfalls are best gathered daily and used straight away for juice, chutney or sauce — they bruise easily and will not keep.

Handling, sorting and storing your harvest

Sort as you go. Any apple with a bruise, a codling moth hole or a broken skin should be set aside for immediate use; a single rotting fruit will taint a whole tray.

• Store only perfect, dry, stalk-on fruit in single layers on slatted trays or in paper-lined boxes.
• Keep trays in a cool, dark, frost-free place at around 3–5°C with some humidity — a garage, shed or unheated spare room works well.
• Early varieties such as Discovery and Katy last a fortnight at best; mid-season apples store for six to ten weeks, while late keepers such as Ashmead's Kernel and Newton Wonder will hold until the new year.
• Check stored fruit every few weeks and remove any that are softening.

Pick a little early if hard frosts or gales are forecast — fruit harvested slightly under-ripe will finish ripening in store. And if you find a tree that crops well and stores well, take note of the date you picked it. Next year, you will know exactly when to start.