Fruit tree picking seasons
Fruit varieties can be characterised by the picking season. Each species - apple, pear, plum, cherry - has a picking season and within the season varieties are typically grouped into "early", "mid-season", and "late".
The importance of picking seasons and season of use was well known in the past but in the era of supermarkets and year-round fruit it sometimes gets neglected. Fortunately "seasonality" is now making a come-back as consumers recognise the importance of eating fresh produce when it is in season.
In the context of fruit-growing, if you have space for more than a couple of fruit trees then you will almost certainly want to choose varieties that can be picked at different times of the year, thereby assuring a steady supply rather than a glut at one time.
Almost every fruit reference book and website publishes picking seasons for different varieties, and we are no different. However it is vital to recognise that seasons are all relative to the local climate, whereas most reference books use data collected from just a handful of fruit research stations, often from Kent in the southern UK which has a cool temperate climate often some way ahead of the rest of the UK. Therefore it is best not to place too much reliance on actual dates, just use the general sequence.
We have produced a simple table showing picking times for all the fruit tree varieties we have for sale.