Much depends on the age of your tree. If it’s under 10 years old I’d consider some water – deep watering, you don’t want the roots ‘turning up’ and seeking surface water; you want them digging deep. If it’s under 5 years old, I’d watch it a bit closer.

Though they’re the first apples to ripen, this doesn’t lessen the need for water. The water's mainly for the tree. And – they’re likely about ripe, mine are. You want to keep the tree in good health, leaves collecting and storing energy for next years crop. One very important aspect with Transparent’s is thinning… they set very heavy and that can weaken the tree. But other than propping up limbs due to a heavy load, it’s a bit late for thinning – other than obviously insect damaged or malformed fruit.

I bet folks in Puget Sound are around two weeks away from sweetness… we’re a bit warmer ‘down here.’

The ‘shelf life’ estimates sound about right. The running joke within our society is their 4-hour window of perfection. They’re consistency varies a lot with regard to ripeness and there seems only a 4 hour period of perfection

I’d let them tree ripen mostly, they’ll ‘mellow’ with storage but not develop enough sugar content to taste good, to me. I like them from crunchy green through mellow yellow – they’re the first apple I get, other than a graft of “Summer Red” that’s pretty good on the same tree. I have both of those varieties grafted within a Gravenstein apple as pollinators. I’d bet a Gravenstein would be a good apple for you …though they’re pollen finicky and extremely prone to scab... But they’re an early ripener with a sweet/tart blend that (to me) beats all early apples in flavor complexity ~

Sun is critical.. and full sun is best. Less sun - fewer leaves, less energy production and a lesser ability to feed the fruit.

‘Down here’ we’ve recently had some extended cold wet Springs - but this one was better. Having had very poor fruit set, this year my trees are loaded, too (and I’ve not done much thinning). I suspect the trees have stored a fair amount of energy that has finally gotten an opportunity to produce fruit.

Another thought; I believe Transparent’s are “Tip Bearer’s,” bearing their fruit on last years growth. If you’re not regularly pruning this tree it may be trying to form fruit on ‘wore out’ fruit spurs, and few of them (anyone?).

Your orchard care sounds good, but my suspicion is lack of sun with regard to size. …fewer leaves.

“I've read recently that the apple's size is determined by the number of cells” -- I believe that’s pollination, likely the number of ‘cells’ transferred during pollination. Though Transparent apples are likely considered ‘self pollinating,’ most fruit benefits from cross pollination. Transparent’s bloom early, so unless there’s some decent overlap with other apples in the area, perhaps the smaller size (once described to me as not perfectly formed either) is caused by incomplete pollination. …but we’ve likely some experts around here who could describe (or correct) my assumption – if they’re watching

Thinning should help size-up the remaining apples. Though again, I suspect lack of sun… and it sounds like there’s little you can do about that. The last couple of days I’ve been gorging on Satsuma Asian plums, from the north side of my tree. The south side, encroached upon by a clump of Big leaf Maples, has so thinned the branches of leaves even fruit production’s disappeared. On the north side, with all-day sun – they’re big, juicy and think.

“Am I obsessing?” -- over fruit trees..? - around here that’s a good thing