I am very surprised how well the Stayman apples I put in my garage refrigerator Oct 10th are keeping. Still firm enough to be crunchy and no signs of deteriorating. These were picked off the trees by myself at a PYO orchard. They went into ziplolock bags with one small ethylene asborbing packet and 5 apples per bag. Temperature set at 33 degrees and the “garage ready” refrigerator lived up to its name in the unheated space.
I also have some Winesaps that were bought prepicked so they varied in ripeness. A few of those had gotten mushy but overall they were a success for long keeping as well.
I have enough left for a month. My wife got tired of eating apples a few months ago. But I still eat 2 a day.
i cant wait until i can get some long storage apples. many of my apples are fruiting for the 1st time but none are storage apples. hopefully my black oxford fruits next year.
I finished off some 5 month old Fujis that were free at one of my jobsites (January)…not sure how old they were when i got them… but honestly they were really great at about the 4-5 month stage that i ate them.
Nice! When was Winesap at its peak for flavor and texture? I’m anxiously looking at my first small crop of Winesaps and hoping the squirrels will leave them alone.
I’m still eating my Yates, they have been in the fridge but with no ethylene absorbers added. Some are getting a bit over the hill (softening) and I’m cooking with those. Other ones are perfect eaters.
The winesaps went in Oct 21. I started eating those in December. Peak for eating was late January. As with any fruit, quality in and quality out. Overripe apples don’t keep as long by quite a bit.
What are you using for refrigeration? Just your produce bin in your household refrigerator? I need to figure out how I am going to store a lot of fruit. I am tired of freezing and canning, and then buying grocery store apples for my husband! (I won’t eat them!)
You can get various sizes of ethylene absorbing products to match the space needed. Check the product website for recommendations for size and how long you can expect them to be effective.
Long term storage works best when not opening and closing a refrigerator all the time so the temperature remains constant. I used a 5 cu ft mini fridge for a couple of years until I needed more space with a full size dedicated one without a freezer part so all the space could used for fruit.
That’s what I’ve been thinking about doing until I have time to make a coolbot refrigerated room. But I don’t want to use plastic bags for the apples, and some shelves in a refrigerator are warmer than others, too warm for long term storage.
I like the plastic bags as it keeps the humidity up as a standard frost free fridges will dry them out. Also any apples that may rot will be contained and not affect too many other apples.
I leave the last 2 inches of ziplocks unsealed so there is some release of moisture. Or you use the produce bags with small punched holes in them.
Commercial apples will be better resistant to storage rots as some of the sprays help with that. Especially those sprayed with Merivon or Pristine.
