How do I store apples so they keep until spring?

Apples keep because they go on respiring slowly, and everything about storage is about slowing that down without freezing them. Cool, dark, humid and undisturbed is what they want. Two things ruin more home-stored apples than anything else: storing varieties that were never going to keep, and storing fruit with invisible bruises that turn into brown rot and pass it to their neighbours.

What you'll need

• Slatted wooden or plastic trays
• A cool, dark, frost-free place
• Newspaper or greaseproof paper for wrapping (optional)
• Perforated polythene bags (optional)

Step by step

1. Store only the varieties that keep.Late-season apples: Bramley, Newton Wonder, Ashmead's Kernel, Egremont Russet, Blenheim Orange, Sturmer Pippin, Winston. Early apples such as Discovery, Beauty of Bath and George Cave last days, not months, however you store them.
2. Pick for storage, dry and firm.Picked on a dry day, slightly under-ripe, with the stalk on and no bruise, split, scab crack or grub hole. Every one of those is a rot entry point.
3. Sort ruthlessly.Anything imperfect goes in the eat-now basket. It is much cheaper to eat a doubtful apple in October than to lose a tray in December.
4. Find the right place.Cool but frost-free, ideally 3–7°C, dark, and slightly humid. An unheated garage, a shed, a cellar or an outbuilding. A heated house is far too warm and dry, and apples shrivel there within weeks.
5. Lay them out in a single layer, not touching.Slatted trays stacked with air between them. Fruit in contact passes rot along, which is precisely how one apple takes the tray.
6. Wrap them, or use perforated bags, if the air is dry.Individual newspaper wraps slow moisture loss and contain any rot. Perforated polythene bags of a few kilos work well and hold humidity, but must have holes or the fruit sweats.
7. Keep apples away from potatoes, onions and other stored crops.Apples give off ethylene, which sprouts potatoes and shortens the life of many stored vegetables. Apples also take up strong smells readily, so onions taint them.
8. Store varieties separately and label them.They keep for very different lengths of time. Knowing which tray is Bramley and which is Egremont Russet lets you eat them in the right order.
9. Check every fortnight.Remove anything soft, brown or shrivelled and use anything that is on the turn. Ten minutes a fortnight saves the crop.
10. Keep rodents out.Mice and rats will find stored apples. Trays raised off the floor, a closed room, and a check on gnawing damage each time you inspect.

Tips

• Do not wash apples before storing them. The natural bloom on the skin helps them keep, and damp fruit rots.
• A garage that gets warm from a car engine or that is used as a workshop is often too warm. Somewhere on the north side of the building is better.
• Frost damage shows as brown, water-soaked flesh. If the store can drop below freezing, throw fleece over the trays on the coldest nights.
• Windfalls, bruised and cut fruit freeze well as purée or slices, which is the sensible destination for everything that fails the storage sort.
• Late apples that taste sharp and hard in October are often excellent in January. Judge a keeper after it has been in store a month.

Common mistakes

• Storing early varieties — They are bred to be eaten off the tree and go mealy within days regardless of conditions. Nothing you do at storage time changes that.
• Storing bruised or stalkless fruit — Rot enters through bruises and stalk wounds and then spreads by contact to every apple touching it.
• Storing apples in the house — Too warm and far too dry. They shrivel in weeks. Cool and slightly damp is what keeps them.
• Storing apples in a sealed bag — They sweat, and the trapped moisture and ethylene rot them quickly. Bags must be perforated.
• Storing them next to potatoes — Ethylene from the apples sprouts the potatoes, and the potatoes taint the apples. Different rooms if possible.

Keeping on top of it

• Check trays and remove any soft or rotting fruit (Every fortnight)
• Check for rodent damage (Every fortnight)
• Cover trays with fleece if a hard frost is forecast (As needed in winter)

Questions people ask