The USU Extension Office took some time to come into Castle Country Radio to talk about how individuals can prepare their fruit trees and lawn for the fall season.
Most people are preparing to harvest their pear and autumn apple trees. Agriculture Assistant Professor, Steve Price shares a few pointers to remember when it comes to harvesting your pears, “A lot of times we think about fruit staying on the tree till its ripe and we want to eat it particularly for pears this is a little bit different. So you want to be harvesting your pears when those are fully formed, they’re mature, but they’re not quite ripe.” So really individuals will want the pears to have some firmness, the inside should be a creamy white color, with a lighter green look on the outside.
“Let them stay until they’re still firm and then go ahead and harvest those. They should separate really easy from the fruiting spur; you should just have to lift up a little bit on that fruit and it should pop quick. Then actually if you’re trying to get them ready for canning, if you bring them inside, store them in a covered box, that will help get them all kind of ready for processing at the same time,” stated Price. The pears will ripen up a bit as they are in the box waiting to be canned.
As for harvesting autumn apples the secret is looking at the color of the apples and also looking for that dark chestnut color in the seeds. The best way to tell is to take one off the tree, taste it and if you can taste the conversion of starch to sugar then the apple is ready. “When you’re ready to harvest, again, they should separate from the fruit spur really easy, a lift and a little twist they should pop. Try to keep those stems on there. There going to store better with those stems if they’re left on. Some varieties the Golden Delicious that have a long stem you kind of have to help grab them and lift them as you pull but keep the stems on there, that help keep them going for you,” said Price.
It’s a good idea to prepare your lawn for fall season as well. If you have bare patches you might want to reseed those if you haven’t already. “A good practice is a fall fertilization. Your fall fertilization for most homeowners is going to be probably your most important. So getting down a correct amount of high nitrogen fertilizer now is really going to help. That nitrogen is going to help get that plant ready for winter and so you’re also going to experience heathier, denser growth in the spring and it’s also going to wake up a little bit faster for giving you a nice early spring green,” said Price. Mid-October is a good time to apply lawn fertilizer, as long as it’s before the ground freezes.
To learn more about fall season preparation visit the USU Extension website https://extension.usu.edu/