How to keep apples until the spring

Apples are a storehouse of vitamins and nutrients, which are so lacking in the winter. What you need to do to apple harvest from your own site is preserved as long as possible?

Which affects the stability of the stored fruits and how to protect them from decay and disease? Here are some tips you can use to increase the shelf life of apples.

Storage of apples in the refrigerator

To fruit for a long time retain their freshness and taste, they need to be stored under appropriate conditions.

Metabolic processes in plucked fruits, causing deterioration of its quality indicators, which sometimes leads to deterioration and rotting fruit.

To prevent this unfavorable phenomenon apples can be stored in the refrigerator, thus maintaining a low temperature and high humidity. These conditions allow to store the fruit in half a year.

Storage of fruits in the cellar

In cultivation conditions amateur fruits are stored, typically in the basement, where the ability to control temperature and humidity virtually minimal.

However, subject to certain rules, apples collected from the garden can be stored in the cellar until January, and sometimes longer.

The success of the conservation harvest depends on the following factors:

· Harvesting

To extend the life of the fruit, they need to collect by hand without knocking or dropping them on the ground to prevent damage.

· Sorting fruit

Sorting helps you understand what kind of fruit is better to use in the first place.

To this end, the apples are sorted out, damaged or spoiled fruit is removed for further processing.

· Placing fruit in a container

For good preservation, apples better oiled paper wrap. Also, apples are perfectly stored in boxes with clean sand.

· Installation of the container

The boxes must be placed on a wooden base in columns on each other, so that between the lower boxes and the floor remains free space.

Tara fruit should cover with plastic wrap. This will prevent rapid loss of moisture and help to slow down the ripening process.

· Preparation of premises

The room is designed to store must be well ventilated.

Basement walls must be whitewashed, and the floor is treated with ferrous sulfate.

The room should be clean, dry and free of foreign odors.

· Compliance with the conditions

For long-term storage of fruit should follow the desired temperature and humidity levels. For different grades optimum storage temperature ranges.

It is necessary to provide support to a temperature of from 0 degrees to +5 degrees and humidity at 85-95%.

During the first week of storage of fruits is generally too warm, and therefore, temperature control is required to ventilate the basement regularly to reduce the temperature and remove excess ethylene.

And the main thing in the storage period must not forget to touch and remove the rotten and spoil the fruit, which can lead to damage of the crop.