Storing apples: which varieties last until spring?
Not every apple is made for storage. With the right variety, the right picking time and a cool spot, your apples can last well into winter.
By mid-October the last apples are still on the tree in many gardens, and the question is: eat, process or store them? Whether an apple keeps for months is decided by the variety and by how you pick it. Here are the basics that have proven themselves in many gardens.
Storage varieties are not early apples
Summer and early autumn varieties such as Klarapfel (White Transparent) turn mealy quickly and keep for only a few days. Late-ripening varieties such as Boskoop, Kaiser Wilhelm, Idared or Gloster often develop their flavour only after some weeks in storage and, under good conditions, can last until spring. If you are not sure which variety you have, ask at a fruit tree nursery or a local orchard association.
Ready to pick is not ready to eat
A storage apple should be ripe but not overripe: the seeds are brown and the apple comes away from the twig with a gentle twist. Pick by hand on a dry day and avoid bruising. Windfalls do not belong in storage; use them for juice or compote.
The right spot: cool, humid, dark
Apples keep best at about 2 to 5 degrees Celsius (roughly 36 to 41°F) and high humidity; a frost-free cellar or an unheated garage is ideal. The key is that it should not stay below freezing for long. Place the apples in shallow fruit crates, one layer deep, so the fruits do not touch. Wrapping each apple in newspaper slows the spread of rot.
Bad neighbours in storage
Apples release the ripening gas ethylene, which speeds up ripening and ageing in other fruit and vegetables. Store them apart from cabbage, carrots and potatoes: cabbage yellows sooner, carrots can turn bitter, and potatoes easily pick up the smell of apples.
Check and sort
A single rotten apple can spoil the crate. Look through the apples every week or two and remove any fruit with rot spots right away. Apples with small bruises can be used straight away.
Your storage log in the app
In Rootivo you can record variety, picking date and storage place in your garden journal, so in spring you can look up which variety lasted how long.