HO-95
yard and garden
STORAGE OF APPLES
John A. WoH
cooperative extension service horticulture department purdue university lafayette, indiana 47907
Home storage of apples Is convenient, and if properly done, can provide excellent, economical fruit, particularly if you have your own trees and the fruit would otherwise go to waste. But the plain fact is that most homes are not equipped for proper apple storage. Often, it is better to buy the fruit in small quantities as it is needed. Two three-pound bags of apples each week will provide enough apples for pies, salads and a family's out-of-hand eating. These can be stored easily in the refrigerator until used.
If long-term storage of large quantities of apples is planned, then carefully choose the varieties. Some varieties will keep quite well if stored under the proper conditions. Stayman, Winesap, Red Delicious and Golden Delicious are good storage apples. In home-storage facilities, they should last until February. Rome Beauty is a superior storage apple, often lasting until March. Both Golden Delicious and Cortland have the advantage of not turning brown when the flesh is exposed to air. On the other hand, summer apples such as Yellow Transparent and Wealthy are good for immediate use, but should be avoided for storage.
The home storage period and uses for the most popular Indiana apple varieties are shown in Table 1. Of course, the storage life of the apples which you store may vary from that shown in Table 1, depending on the facilities you have available.
HARVESTING
When harvesting your own apples for storage, select only those fruit which have reached maturity but are not yet ripe. Mature apples are full-size and taste sweet and good. They are likely to have a greenish-yellow undercolor and to be hard and crisp.
At maturity, a layer of cells forms across the stem of the apple, cutting off its supply of nutrients from the tree, and the apple is easily picked by slightly lifting and turning. As the mature apple ripens, it begins to soften, and the conversion of starches to sugars continues, giving it a sweet, mellow flavor. The undercolor usually becomes completely yellow. When the apple is ripe, it will drop from the tree, unless it is picked first.
Fruit does not die when harvested. It remains a living organism still respiring.
It continues to take in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide. After harvest, an apple no longer receives nutrients from the tree, and since it is still respiring, it must use up the food it has stored over the growing season.
As this food is gradually used up during storage, the sugar, starch, and acid contents of the apple change. Eventually, the tissues break down and the apple withers and decays. Proper storage delays these changes.
Cooperative Extension Work in Argiculture and Home Economics, State of Indiana, Purdue University and U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperating. H.G. Diesslin, Director, Lafayette, Ind. Issued in Furtherance of the Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914.