I don't pick my peaches till they are golden and soft to the touch. I gently
press and if it gives easily, I pick it. Many people think peaches are ripe
when they are that reddish color. Not so. Peaches are ripe with the skin turns
a golden yellow and are soft to the touch. Now, I did canning and lots of it,
so I have tons of peaches to work with, but I never pull a peach off before it
is fully ripened on the tree. They cannot be beat. I have no idea what the
commercial growers do. They may be using synthetic methods to ripen the fruit
on a schedule in a chamber of sorts. I know they pick peaches before they are
soft, but just after they color up.

When a peach from the store is mealy, it's because they probably froze at some
point.

Victoria

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 13:42:43 -0400, "NEWS.INDIVIDUAL.NET"
opined:

Living in Central Virginia (just east of the Shenandoah Valley). I have an
approximately 3-4 yo Elberta peach I planted, and it's doing OK, but I
noticed that the fruit is "rubbery". It's sweet enough, but the texture of
the flesh is "tough". As a novice with fruit trees, I'm never quite sure
exactly when to pick them to avoid either under or over-ripe fruit. It's
tough enough fighting the deer for them as it is, so I want to try to get
them at their peak of ripeness if it's at all possible.

This is a big peach growing area, so I'm OK there, I think, and the local
commercial growers are selling them right and left and they are wonderful.
Have I just waited too long to pick mine? That is, did I leave it on the
tree too long? Not long enough? The ones I got from a grower can go for more
than a few days after being picked to soften a bit, but they are never
tough, quite the contrary.

Any ideas??

TIA






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