2026 Pennsylvania Tree Fruit Maturity Report - July 27

Introduction

Welcome to Penn State Extension's weekly apple maturity reports. Maturity metrics for key varieties will be tracked across the state throughout the 2026 season. In this stressful year, with crops decimated by multiple springtime freeze events and hot, dry early summer weather, informed harvest timing recommendations are critical for fruit quality, particularly for apples in mid- to long-term storage. Balancing harvest decisions against sugar accumulation, color development, starch clearing, and firmness drop is difficult to perform in a normal year. These reports serve to provide insight and help inform management decisions.

Because of low crop set throughout our usual sampling regions, we are indebted to the following orchards for sacrificing fruit each week to make these reports possible:

• In Adams County, Penn State wishes to thank Hollabaugh Bros., Inc., in Biglerville, and Hector Mateos in particular for his assistance.
• In Berks County, Penn State wishes to thank Keim Orchard and Frecon Farms in Boyertown, and Ben Keim and Steve Frecon especially for their collaboration.

Their kindness deserves acknowledgement up front.

And out of respect for their need to squeeze out as much profit as possible from their available fruit, sampling of varieties may occur a week or more later than in previous years in order to reduce Penn State Extension's impact on their harvest.  Consequently, sampling from Berks County will begin next week, or perhaps the week after.

In Centre County, the Penn State Rock Springs research orchards were especially hard hit.  Data from Centre County cannot be obtained and reports from Centre County will not be issued in 2026.

General Observations

Despite the well above normal temperatures this March and April, conditions cooled through the rest of the spring and into summer, and growing degree day accumulation has largely evened out. As a result, we are tracking roughly the same harvest timeline as last year across most of the region.

The important caveat this season is crop load: blocks carrying a light crop can mature noticeably earlier than blocks with a regular crop load, so the calendar and even the growing degree day totals will only take you so far in deciding when to pick.

Summer heat compounded this. We had two stretches of extreme heat this season, with temperatures topping 100°F. This raises respiration and pulls the maturity indices out of their usual alignment. Sugars and starch can say "pick" and firmness can drop faster than expected, while the fruit retains the appearance of being under-ripe since heat suppresses red color development even as the fruit ripens ahead of schedule inside.

Heat and a thin canopy over exposed fruit also raise the risk of sunburn, watercore, premature softening, and bitter pit, especially on the large, low-crop-load fruit where calcium is diluted. The takeaway is to start maturity sampling early, sample often, and read several indices together rather than trusting any single one or the calendar.

Adams County

Maturity samples were collected from a single orchard in Biglerville. Crop loads across all varieties in production are estimated to be 40-70% of normal, and as elsewhere around the state, vary by variety, strain, and specific location.

Wildfire™ Gala (Table 1 and Figure 1): Fruit averaged 174 g with excellent red color development. They were slightly on the smaller side, reflecting the dry weeks in Adams County over the past few weeks. Firmness remained strong at about 21.4 lb, and soluble solids were high at 12.9 °Bx. The starch index averaged 5.2, ranging widely from 2 to 8 across pieces, indicating conversion was well underway, and the fruit were already ready for a first pick.

Because the fruit are on the riper side, rain at this stage could cause cracking, so it is advised to harvest this variety as soon as possible before the rain hits (which unfortunately is happening in Adams County now, as this report is being prepared).

As an early-season Gala strain, this fruit is at picking maturity and best moved for near-term sale rather than held long, consistent with how early Galas are typically handled.

Premier® Honeycrisp (Table 1 and Figure 2): Fruit size is decent at 226 g, but red color development is still low at 11%. Firmness held at roughly 19.6 lb with soluble solids at 11.6 °Bx. The starch index averaged 1.7, with most pieces at 1.0, showing minimal starch conversion. This fruit still needs another week or so of checking, with a likely first pick sometime mid- to late next week.

Please take this information and the weather conditions in Biglerville into consideration when adapting the conclusions presented here to your specific location. Penn State recommends NEWA | Network for Environment and Weather Applications as an excellent tool for tracking weather and production developments across the state.  Weather data in these reports will be drawn from it using the "Biglerville (PSU FREC), PA" station.

As in previous years' reports, the ten pieces of fruit sampled were photographed to provide a visual understanding to the reader of the state of the crop. Each photo consists of a montage of the fruit in different orientations and after treatment: (top) looking down into the cavity (stem end), (middle) a profile view, and (bottom) an axial cut stained for starch-iodine indexing.

Conclusions

Commercial fruit growers, please note: apple maturity conditions need to be monitored at a local level within one's own orchard. Before chemical products are applied, be sure to comply with current federal, state, and local use regulations and to review the product label. Product information can be easily obtained online from the CDMS / TELUS® Agriculture label databases.

This series of updates is made possible by a State Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania (SHAP) Extension Grant (Pennsylvania Apple Maturity Program). The authors thank SHAP for the funding and thank the growers participating in these updates for allowing access to their orchards to sample fruit.