Mark is that a bag of plums beside the pears? Are they still good?
I’m down to my last half dozen gold rush from 2020. They are still crisp and delicious. I think they were better a month ago but they are still terrific. MIne are still in the ziplocs they hung from my trees in. I put them all in their ziplocs into a plastic grocery bag and seal it tight. They are stored at 38 degrees in an old, non self-defrosting fridge.
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Good eye! I had to go back and look closer to see either the pears or the plums.
The pears didn’t last long, and then I made jam with the plums because I don’t dry them and I don’t expect them to last more than a few weeks. We eat them fresh until they start to decline and then cook them up.
Gold rush is king for storage with me too. Pink Lady/Cripp’s Pink is good also. Gets some disease but tastes great. Topaz is not as good as GOld Rush but I still have some and taste is superb.
Like Mamuang, I eat the ones that are marginal, so I spend much of the winter eating 3/4 of one apple, 2/3 of another, etc, weeding out those that have some amount of rot or softness. Spigold works for me and Altlander Pfannkuchen apfel (say that 9 times fast!). SPitzenberg does well too. Another thing I agree with Thomas Jefferson on. 
John S
PDX OR
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Here is my apple storage, so far. My fridge is full and the two bottom drawers in this fridge is full also. I still have apples on my trees that are not quite ripe yet. Northern Spy, Golden Delicious, Idared, Ashmeads Kernel, Winter Banana, Spitzenberg. YIKES!! I am out of room.
Are people using plastic bags with or without holes to store your apples in the fridge? I wondered since the apple bags in the stores have holes in them. Yet some people just put them in bags without holes. I bought 2 gallon store brand zip lock bags to put these in. They were a little smaller in size than the 2 1/2 gallon name brand bags.
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Beautiful! I use poly bread backs without perforations, and I do not, as a rule, have trouble with rot/spoilage/mold etc. I wonder if the perforated bags have anything to do with storing apples in a controlled (nitrogen) atmosphere.
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That was my thought as well. Plastic bags with holes to be in the cooler with the nitrogen atmosphere. I am not for sure though. That was why I was asking the question about storing with or without the holes in bags. My worry is the moisture in the apple bags and causing mold or rot issues. I am trying to see how long my apples will store for. This is the first year I have had enough apples to actually store in the fridge. I will probably have to get another fridge next year if keep getting as many apples as did this year. A bad problem to have I guess.
I pretty well fill up an apartment sized fridge that is devoted to apples, stash several bags in our regular upstairs fridge, and have a little dorm fridge for overflow. By Christmas everything except the superkeepers (Prairie Spy, Jonagold & the like) will be gone -except for a couple of dozen bags of Liberty. They will decline in texture and flavor until they’re either just not worth it any longer or they’re gone -but they don’t mold or rot. We usually eat Liberties until late February or even early March, but that’s definitely pushing things quality wise. I try to keep the temps down to 32 F. (The fruit won’t freeze too quickly because of the sugar content.)
Some apples don’t keep all that well. We’ll eat Karmijn for three or four weeks, trying to use them up, State Fair are gone, Ginger Gold were really good and we just ate them up.
Good luck with the storage.
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I turned the temp of the fridge down after reading this. Good suggestions. I will see what fridge/freezer combos are out there for next year. I know I saw a small freezer was at Rural King. That may be the answer to freeze some for later use ( such as ones that will not keep long) and keep the longer keeping apples in the fridge.
I was just worried that if I keep the solid bags in the fridge the whole bag would get moldy.I used 2 gallon bags. That’s a lot of apples to throw away if they get moldy rotted because of the bag being without holes.
The only time Ive had an apple go bad in sealed bags is when there was some kind of flaw I overlooked when bagging.
Lately I’ve been picking my apples and bagging them as I go, one apple at a time. When I fill a bag I close it with a twist tie and set it gently in the box. I think it makes it easier to cull out the questionable fruit. Seems to be working for now, anyway.
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True, it is easy to overlook one little spot on an apple. next thing you know the apple and the ones around it are horrible. One bad apple saying…spoils the whole bunch.
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Grocery or department store plastic bags. I usually put 5 apples in each and tie a knot in the top. I assume the plastic they’re made out of is fairly gas permeable. No holes, no perforations, if the apples have sweated a bit and are slightly damp on the outside, that’s fine as well. In the spring I might pull out a bag where a single apple is completely rotten/gone. So far I’ve yet to lose an entire bag of 5 though. With apple varieties known for long-term keeping ability of course…
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I’ve followed Mark’s advice for the past few years. Have been able to keep apples fresh in the fridge into April (depending on varieties, of course). Thanks, Mark.
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I did not know jonagold apples are long term storage. Must have missed that.
They seem to hold quite well for me.
Well I’ve got hundred pounds of jonagold I need to put in fridge, been in garage for couple weeks. Going to take out pears and stick as much as I can in.
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Hmmm … I don’t want to be the sole source for your decision. Can you find somebody who has more experience?! The Orange Pippin says it only has a shelf life of a month or so. I may be confused and don’t want to see you lose a hundred pounds of fruit!
Some sources say it’s a good keeper but best for the first 1-2 months, so perhaps a lot of it depends on when you decide an apple isn’t worth eating anymore.
Well I’m making apple sauce and dehydrating as well I’ll keep oh 20 pounds in fridge see when they go bad. Definitely need more fridge space. Thank you