STOW, Mass. (AP) — The Massachusetts apple crop is ready for harvest earlier than usual this year, but orchard keepers are concerned that the public is still in summer mode and not ready to pick yet.

Throughout New England, apples are ready to harvest about 10 days earlier than usual and well ahead of Labor Day, the traditional start of the picking season.

Brian Cumming, who maintains the orchard at Shelburne Farm in Stow, tells The Boston Globe (http://b.globe.com/Rft4f7) the early crop is a result of warm weather in March, which kick-started the growing process earlier.

The early harvest has some orchard owners anxious that their customers will miss out on the season's best fruit by waiting for more autumn-like weather before they go picking. Wait until October, they say, and you may be out of luck.

___

Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/globe