How to store apples - the best ways to preserve fruit harvest

Knowing how to store apples, it will be possible to preserve the collected generous harvest for a long time, enjoying the fresh taste of poured fragrant fruits. And newcomers in this matter, and seasoned gardeners will be able to comprehend new ways of storing themselves and gain invaluable experience by following the right advice and recommendations in practice.

Where and how to keep apples for the winter?

The right conditions for storing apples will help to avoid premature damage to fruit fruits and preserve their original taste without foreign smells.

  1. Long-term storage is subject only to winter varieties of apples with a dense skin and a natural wax coating.
  2. An important condition for long-term storage of apples is to ensure a favorable microclimate in the room. The ideal temperature is from 0 to +5 degrees at a humidity of 85-90%.
  3. Correctly harvested fruits are placed in suitable containers: wooden, cardboard or ventilated trellised boxes, having covered them with paper.
  4. It is convenient to use for storage special shelving with drawers or to allocate for fruit a place on the shelves in the cellar or cellar.
  5. It is not recommended to store fruits with potatoes or other vegetables for a long time: the fruits will be saturated with foreign smells and lose their original taste. In addition, apples in the process of storage produce ethylene gas, which will promote the germination of potato tubers and the deterioration of other vegetables.
  6. Apples can be stored separately from other vegetables in the cellar, in the basement, on the insulated balcony or in the presence of free space in the refrigerator.

Preparing apples for storage

Observing the rules of storing apples and adhering to the recommendations for the preliminary preparation of fruits, one can be sure that the harvest will retain its original properties until the spring without unpleasant surprises in the form of spoilage and decay.

  1. Apples must first be carefully and accurately collected from the trees: the fruit is carefully torn off, trying to save the stems and the natural wax coating on the fruits.
  2. Damaged fruit with scratches, dents, punctures or cracks are not suitable for long-term storage: they are culled and eaten for food or for preforms first.
  3. Fruits without pedicels are kept worse than others and less long. They need to be stacked in a separate container and used first.
  4. They sort out the apple mass, get rid of worm fruits and sort the fruit according to grades and sizes, stacking the specimens in different containers.
  5. If it is not possible to provide proper storage conditions for fresh fruits, it is more expedient to prepare the fruit for the winter in the form of jam, compote. Fruits can be cut, dried in a dryer, oven and used for cooking a healthy drink at any time.

How to store apples for the winter in the cellar?

Further on how to properly store apples in the cellar, so that the fruit retained its original taste characteristics for a long time and did not harm other vegetables or fruits.

  1. Initially, fruit fruits are carefully removed from trees and sorted by size and grades, stacking in different boxes.
  2. Proper storage of apples for the winter in the cellar can be ensured by allocating a separate isolated place in the vault with individual ventilation. Only in this way the fruits will preserve the individual taste, aroma and do not harm with fumes in the form of ethylene, potatoes, carrots and other vegetables.
  3. Boxes need to be stacked on top of each other on pallets, ensuring air access and good ventilation to all levels.
  4. The temperature in the cellar should not be above +5 degrees, and the humidity should not exceed 95%.

How to store apples for the winter in an apartment?

It is more difficult to provide ideal storage of apples at home for the winter in a city apartment, especially if there is no balcony. A small number of fruits can be placed on the shelf of the refrigerator, and how to store apples, if there are many, you can find out from the information below. There are ways to prolong the storage of fruit, even at room conditions.

  1. Before you put apples in boxes or boxes, each of them wrapped with paper, paper towels or food film.
  2. Have a container with a crop in the ventilated, coolest place of the apartment with a constant temperature.
  3. Extend the shelf life of the preliminary lubrication of fruits with glycerin, a five percent salicylic acid solution or apples covering with melted paraffin and beeswax.

How to keep apples on the balcony in the winter?

In the conditions of a city apartment, it is possible to store apples on the balcony in the winter. For this, the room should be glazed and ideally insulated.

  1. Fruits are wrapped in paper and placed in boxes or paper ventilated boxes. When the frosts are severe, packets with warm blankets are wrapped.
  2. The optimal solution is the construction of a thermocorobe. To do this, use several cardboard boxes of different sizes, laying the smaller in a larger one. Additional heat insulation can be provided with a layer of foam plastic, which is to glue the box from the outside. Be sure to make a hole from above for ventilation.

How to store apples in the refrigerator?

Considering and choosing for themselves how to store apples for the winter, evaluate the possibility of using a refrigerator for this purpose. If you have a free, non-filled device in your daily life, do not hesitate to apply it to preserve the valuable fruit.

  1. The storage of apples at home in the refrigerator will ensure the maintenance of constant ideal temperature and humidity indicators and, as a result, long-term quality preservation of the crop.
  2. Apples are put in bags, wrapped with film or paper, placed in small boxes and sent to the shelves of the refrigerator compartment, setting the device to the desired mode.

Storage of apples in plastic bags

The following recommendations will help to prolong the period of preservation of many apple varieties. From them you can learn how to store apples in bags of polyethylene.

  1. Packages for storing apples choose a small amount. Perfect in size are polyethylene bags, in which is placed from 1 to 3 kg of fruit fruit.
  2. Before packing, to prevent the appearance of condensation inside the apples cool.
  3. The method is ideal for storing fruit varieties: Streifling, Welsey, Pepin saffron, Saruel, Melba and is unacceptable for the preservation of Antonovka, apple varieties Minskoye, Belorusskoye and Banana.

Storing apples in straw

The next section will help you figure out how to keep apples for the winter in the straw. Many owners of private households and gardeners like this method attracts accessibility, practicality and high efficiency. However, such storage of apples has a significant drawback: over time, the fruits are absorbed by a third-party odor and acquire a characteristic flavor.

  1. The selected quality fruit specimens are placed in boxes, shifting the layers of straw.
  2. Containers with fruit are placed in a cellar or a separate cellar compartment.

How to keep apples in the ground?

If there is no cellar, cellar, you can consider storing apples in the ground. This method is more troublesome than others, but with the right approach it will allow you to enjoy a great apple taste until the spring.

  1. Dig out a trench or pit depth of 70 cm.
  2. Lining the bottom with juniper or fir branches to repel rodents.
  3. Lay apples in bags of 1.5-2 kg, placed in a pit at a distance of 20 cm.
  4. They fill the pit with earth and dry foliage.
  5. You can store apples in the ground under climatic conditions, where the frosts in winter do not exceed -20 degrees.

How to store dried apples at home?

Comprehending the nuances of preserving fresh fruits, it remains to become familiar with how to store dried apples. Dried fruit cut using an electric dryer, oven or in natural conditions in the attic or in the sun, it is advisable to provide the necessary conditions for harvesting to preserve the original characteristics.

  1. Unlike fresh fruits dried apples require the most dry conditions for storage with a minimum of moisture.
  2. Drying is placed in cans, containers, plastic containers, tissue bags or paper bags and placed in a dark closet, protected from foreign smells of spices, spices.
  3. Storing dried apples at home involves protecting the billet from moths, mites and other parasites that rarely appear with reduced moisture in a closed container.
  4. Regularly inspect the drying for pests, on detection remove damaged specimens, and quality ones are heated in the oven at 70 degrees 1 hour or placed in the refrigerator for 24 hours.