Northwest Michigan apple maturity report – September 22, 2026
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EmailApple harvest is ramping up in northwest Michigan. Growers are harvesting McIntosh for processing, and Honeycrisp harvest is underway.
Apple maturity testing will occur weekly for northwest Michigan beginning now through the end of harvest. Reports will be sent out every week following the Michigan State University Extension fruit team apple maturity calls on Wednesday mornings.
In the Northwest region, growers are starting to harvest Honeycrisp this week. Growers are also going after processing varieties like McIntosh. Color has improved in all varieties; the color in both Gala and Honeycrisp has markedly improved since last week. These cold nights have been helpful. Size has also improved over the last week. Fruit keeps looking better and better!
Weather
The weather is typical for a northern Michigan in the fall: warm in the sunshine during the day, but temperatures are dropping down at night. The nighttime low on Monday dipped down to 49 degrees Fahrenheit. The weather forecast looks good for both harvest and continuing to improve color and flavor of apples. Daytime highs will be in the mid- to high 60s with ample sunshine. Nighttime temperatures will be in the 40s to low 50s this weekend. There is no rain in the forecast, and most days are predicted to be sunny.
How to read maturity tables
Each week, an apple maturity report will be provided and will include average values for several apple samples for varieties nearing maturity. Maximum and minimum values are included in tables below for the highest and lowest individual fruits evaluated for each, to give a full spectrum of maturity. Samples included in the reports have been untreated with ReTain or Harvista, unless otherwise noted. Samples were collected from 8+ locations in Leelanau County. We also test some apples from Old Mission Peninsula.
For more information about apple maturity testing, review these resources compiled by the MSU Extension tree fruit team.
- Predicted apple harvest dates for 2026 from MSU.
- More information on harvest management tools and timings can be found in this article.
- Guidelines from MSU to check for apple maturity in your own orchard, including specific pressure and starch recommendations by variety.
- New starch charts for evaluating apple maturity in Michigan from Michigan State University
- Predicting apple maturity and starch chart from Cornell University.
- Starch chart for Honeycrisp Apples developed by Washington State University.
Maturity information for the Northwest Region
Apple maturity is occurring earlier than normal this season in most other growing regions in the state. In northwest Michigan, our predicted harvest dates line up with ‘normal’ harvest dates, but we are seeing variability between orchard blocks and sites. Apples seem to be maturing on the faster side this week compared to last week. We are spot on with our predicted harvest date for Gala in northwest Michigan. As mentioned above, color has also improved quite a bit since last week.
Gala
Gala fruit were sampled from five locations on September 21. Red color is at 88.3%. Gala color has improved over the past week—big differences when looking at fruit both up close and driving by orchards from the truck window. Fruit firmness is similar to last week at an average of 20.4 lbs of pressure. Starch is an average of 3.8 this week compared to 2.4 last week. Sugars are an average of 11.6 °Brix, and these numbers are higher than the 11.1 °Brix from last week.
|
Collection Date |
Red Color (%) |
Firmness (lbs) |
Starch (1-8) |
Soluble Solids (°Brix) |
|
Aug 25 |
33% (15-60) |
23.1 (22.5-23.5) |
1.0 |
8.9 (8.1-9.6) |
|
Sept 1 |
67.2% (30-95) |
22.6 (21-23) |
1.4 (1-7) |
9.8 (8.4-12.7) |
|
Sept 8 |
73.1% (15-100) |
21.9 (18.5-23) |
1.3 (1-4) |
10.2 (8.4-14.1) |
|
Sept 14 |
85.1% (20-100) |
20.4 (19-23) |
2.4 (1-6) |
11.1 (9.4-12.9) |
|
Sept 21 |
88.3% (50-100) |
20.3 (18-22) |
3.8 (1-8) |
11.6 (9.2-12.9) |
Honeycrisp
Fruit were sampled from seven locations on September 21. Growers are harvesting this variety now. Average pressure has dropped to an average of 16.5 lbs compared to 18.5 lbs last week, and starch rating was 4.6, which is up from last week’s 2.9 start removal average. Sugars are at 11.3 °Brix this week. There is quite a range in color, firmness, and brix in Honeycrisp samples this week. Firmness ranged from 13.5 all the way to 23, and starch removal ranged from 1-7. Honeycrisp are juicy and are eating better this week; we noticed taste differences between blocks.
|
Collection Date |
Red Color (%) |
Firmness (lbs) |
Starch (1-8) |
Soluble Solids (°Brix) |
|
Aug 25 |
35.3% (5-80) |
23.1 (22.5-23.5) |
1.2 (1-4) |
10.1 (9.5-14.6) |
|
Sept 1 |
39.1% (5-60) |
20.8 (16-23) |
1.7 (1-7) |
11.1 (8.7-13.8) |
|
Sept 8 |
50.7% (5-90) |
18.3 (21-23) |
2.4 (1-8) |
11.1 (8.4-14.1) |
|
Sept 14 |
53.9 (10-95) |
18.5 (13.5-23) |
2.9 (1-7) |
11.0 (8.4-12.4) |
|
Sept 21 |
60.4% (20-95) |
16.5 (13-21) |
4.6 (1-7) |
11.3 (8.6-14.4) |
McIntosh
We tested three orchards in Leelanau County on September 21 for McIntosh. Color is improving in this variety—all trees we tested are older strains of this variety, so there is quite a range in color development. The firmness dropped in Macs this week as to be expected in this variety. We saw a noticeable jump in starch readings: from 2.6 last week up to 4.9 this week. Most growers are harvesting this variety for processing. In fact, I took samples right from the bin at one farm that was loading them onto the truck. Brix also seems slow to increase in this variety; there was no big increase in brix readings from last week until this week.
|
Collection Date |
Red Color (%) |
Firmness (lbs) |
Starch (1-8) |
Soluble Solids (°Brix) |
|
Sept 1 |
42.5% (20-60) |
19.5 (16.5-23) |
1.5 (1-2) |
9.7 (9-11) |
|
Sept 8 |
67.6% (30-100) |
19.0 (16.5-22.5) |
1.5 (1-2) |
9.7 (8.7-10.5) |
|
Sept 14 |
62.2% (5-100) |
18.3 (15.5-22) |
2.6 (1-4) |
10.0 (8.4-12.4) |
|
Sept 21 |
40% (0-80) |
16.2 (13-18.5) |
4.9 (3-7) |
10.3 (8.5-11.2) |
Apple maturity sampling parameters
- Color % = the visual percentage of red color from 0 to 100; range is of all fruits tested. Indicates surface area covered in red and intensity of red color.
- Background color: 5 = Green, 1 = Yellow; range is of all fruits tested.
- Firmness in pounds pressure = measured with a Güss Fruit Texture Analyzer; range is of all fruits tested.
- Starch For Honeycrisp: will typically be rated using the standard Michigan State University starch scale (1-8). However, a separate starch chart for Honeycrisp Apples developed by Washington State University (scale 1-6) also exists.
- Brix = % sugar measured with Atago PAL-1 Pocket Refractometer
Looking for more? View Michigan State University Extension’s Apple page for regional reports throughout the state and additional resources.
|
Suggested firmness and starch index levels for long-term and shorter-term controlled atmosphere (CA) storage by variety. |
|||||
|
Variety |
Firmness (pounds)* |
Starch Index* |
|||
|
Short CA |
Mid-CA |
Long CA |
Mature |
Over mature |
|
|
McIntosh |
14 |
15 |
16 |
5 |
7 |
|
Gala |
16 |
17 |
18 |
3 |
6 |
|
Honeycrisp |
15 |
16 |
17 |
3.5 |
6 |
|
Empire |
14 |
15 |
16 |
3.5 |
6 |
|
Early Fuji |
16 |
17 |
18 |
3 |
7 |
|
Jonagold |
15 |
16 |
17 |
3.5 |
5.5 |
|
Jonathan |
14 |
15 |
16 |
3.5 |
5.5 |
|
Golden Delicious |
15 |
16 |
17 |
3 |
6.5 |
|
Red Delicious |
16 |
17 |
18 |
2.5 |
6 |
|
Idared |
14 |
15 |
16 |
3.5 |
6 |
|
Fuji |
16 |
17 |
18 |
3 |
7 |
|
Rome |
15 |
16 |
18 |
3 |
5.5 |
|
Brix Guide |
Low |
Fair |
Good |
Excellent |
|
All varieties |
Less than 11 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
|
Honeycrisp |
Less than 12 |
12 |
12 |
Greater than 14 |
