Apple orchards.

Timing your visit

Early varieties can be ready in late summer, and later ones keep coming into the fall. If there’s a variety you want, ask the orchard when it usually ripens. Orchards often post what’s ready that week.

Picking your own

• Twist and lift rather than pulling straight down, so the fruit and the spur stay intact.
• Follow the orchard’s rules about ladders, rows, and bag or box sizes.
• Don’t pick from trees marked as not ready or reserved.

Questions worth asking

• Which varieties do you grow, and are any old or heirloom kinds?
• How do you manage pests and disease? Orchards can tell you their approach in their own words.
• Do you propagate your own trees, or sell trees or scionwood?

Trees are where grafts come in: nearly every named apple variety is grown on a grafted tree.