Urban Orchards : Fruit Development, Ripening & Harvesting

Contents:
Bearing Age
Fruiting Habit
Fruit Development
Pollination
Fruit Harvest

Bearing Age:

Fruit and nut trees (and some shrubs) undergo 4 stages of development:
Stage 1 – Whip: l-year old seedling or graft. Stage 2 – Juvenile: Sapling, displays vegetative growth only. Plant may bloom without bearing towards the end of the juvenile stage. Stage 3 – Adolescent: The plant bears its first fruit. Yield increases gradually over the next few years. Stage 4 – Mature: The plant starts to bear significant harvests.

Even though they may flower, most fruit and nut trees do not bear fruit until they reach adolescence or bearing age. Bearing age depends on plant type (tree, shrub, vine), fruit type (apple, cherry, peach, pecan, etc.), rootstock (earliest bearing for dwarf, later for standard, latest for seedling trees), and growing conditions (water, sun, soil fertility).

Trees from nurseries are usually already 1-3 years old. The transplant recovery time is greater for older or bearing-age trees and further depends on growing conditions. Significant harvest is usually delayed for transplants.

Harvest Schedule

Fruit Type

First Fruit

Significant Harvest

Fruit Trees

Apple, Standard	3-6 yrs	8-10 yrs
Apple, Dwarf	2-4 yrs	3-6 yrs>
Apricot, Seedling	3-5 yrs	5-7 yrs
Cherry, Sweet	2-3 yrs	5-6 yrs
Peach, Nectarine	3 yrs	4 yrs
Pear	4-6 yrs	8-10 yrs
Plum	3-4 yrs	4-6 yrs

Nut Trees

Chestnut	4-6 yrs	10 yrs
Pecan	4-6 yrs	10 yrs
Hazelnut	5 yrs	8 yrs

Shrubs, Vines,
and Brambles

Currant	2 yrs	4-5 yrs
Grape	3 yrs	4-5 yrs
Raspberry/ Blackberry	1-2 yrs	3-4 yrs

Fruiting habit: Depending on fruit type, fruit is borne on specialized structures (such as buds, fruiting spurs, or fruit clusters) or on certain areas of the plant (such as first-year wood, 'old' wood, 'off' wood, or the current year's growth).

Examples of different fruiting habits:

Apple, pear - fruiting spurs on 'old' wood (2 or more years old), occasionally tip bearing.peach - triple buds on first-year wood.
Apricot, cherry, plum - buds and fruiting spurs on first-year wood.
Grape, hardy kiwi - fruit clusters on current year's growth and off first-year wood (off 1-3 buds near and including tip or terminal bud on first-year wood).
Seasonal raspberry - buds on first-year canes (florocanes).
Everbearing raspberry – buds on current year's canes (primocanes).
Hazelnuts, chestnuts - tip bearing.
Elderberry, viburnum - clusters off current year's growth.

Fruit development begins with bud formation, one year prior to bloom. In early June buds start differentiating into flower buds, and in late November sexual parts are formed. Winter is a critical dormant stage for fruit trees, in which they require a minimum number of chill hours (uninterrupted temperatures below 45 Fahrenheit) which vary in number between different fruit types and varieties. By early March pollen and ovules are fully formed and flower buds are starting to swell. Depending on species and variety, bloom, pollination, fertilization, fruit set, and fruit development will begins betwee late February and May. Fruit will ripen through summer and be ready for harvest 60-150 days after bloom.

Pollination is the transfer of pollen from one flower to another via insects, birds, rain, or wind. Only flowers that are pollinated develop into fruit. Although some plants are able to pollinate their own flowers, most will produce better quality fruit and greater yield when they have another plant of the same type but of a different variety for pollination. The following are a few terms important in understanding pollination and in selecting a pollinator:

Self-fruitful/self-pollinator: The plant is able to pollinate its own flowers (peaches, most apricots, some pie cherries, and a few grapes, raspberries, plums, pears, & sweet cherries).
Self-unfruitful/self-sterile: The plant requires pollen from another plant of the same type but different variety, but both varieties must have the same bloomtime (apples, hazelnuts, most sweet cherries, pears, & plums).
Cross-incompatible: The plant cannot pollinate another variety of the same fruit type (some sweet cherries).
Sterile pollen: The plant cannot pollinate itself or any other variety (some apples).

Fruit Harvest - tips and comments:
Fruit is ripe when it tastes and feels ripe to the picker. Most people like it sweet – in this case, any green blush or color will change subtley or dramatically to yellowish-green, yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, or black, depending on the fruit (some apples and most pears keep some green). The fruit will generally become soft or twist off easily (or pull off easily in the case of berries, cherries or grapes). Exceptions are pears, which are best picked when still hard but with a rose or yellow/russett blush, and peaches, which are best when soft (but they rot quickly in wet weather – if rain is expected, pick them while they are fairly hard but no longer green).

Fruit, especially tree fruit, should be gently twisted off so as not to tear the wood or break off fruiting spurs, which usually produce fruit for several years. Dropped fruit (“drops”) should be gathered and used, thrown out, or destroyed in order to prevent insects and disease from infecting other plants in the orchard.

Note: ripe “drops” are perfectly edible if you cut out the damaged parts and wash the good parts. They can be used for sauces, compotes, pies, crisps, etc.

Encourage sharing of public fruit – politely remind people who are gathering bags full that others may want some too. Organize canning or baking parties, or spread the word if your site had fruit that is going unused.