North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[charles paradise <machelp@attglobal.net>]

Small-scale ground temperature storage can reportedly be crafted by using a 
clay drain pipe and
sinking it in the ground.  You could probably also get the same effect by 
cutting holes in the
bottom of a trash can and sinking it into the ground.

I used to rent a large root cellar for $15/month.  I was never able to use it 
to its full
potential, unfortunately.  Through experience with it I saw a few guidelines 
for unrefrigerated
storage large or small:
1] ventilate to outside air
2] holes plugged so mice don't get in [aluminum foil crushed in hand worked 
well]
3] best if apples don't touch each other  [e.g. a tray is good]
4] humidity is necessary - like 95% - a dirt bottom will probably supply this.
5] you will get as many months as the apple variety's storage characteristic 
allows.  [e.g. you
won't get 5 months out of Delicious or Gala]
6] to gauge the success of your unrefrigerated storage method, use a variety 
that really is a
storage variety - e.g. Northern Spy - don't gauge it by the success of 
varieties that are said
to be storage varieties but aren't such great storers really - e.g. Golden 
Russet and even
Baldwin.
7] anything that has enough ground contact will never freeze in U.S. 
latitudes.
8] take an inventory.  you may not be growing any varieties at all that are 
real storers.  Lots
of varieties will keep a month, which is great, but if you want to pull 
apples out of storage
when prices are high, in February, they won't be Galas or Delicious etc.   
You've got to have
access to real storage varieties to pull prime marketable fruit out of 
storage in February.
9]  Think your harvest times out.  When Gala ripens, it isn't cold.  What 
difference does it
make if Gala stores perfect for 2 months?  Say its ripe September 1.  Two 
months later is
November 1, the ripen date for one of the Golden Delicious strains Stark 
Bros. used to sell [or
may still sell].  Why haul Gala to storage [and it isn't even cold enough 
then for
unrefrigerated storage] to pull it out 2 months later, when you could have 
picked Golden
Delicious right then on November 1, and not bothered to haul it to storage?  
So you need a
late-ripening-sure-storage variety [and I mean verified, not "I heard it 
stores" or "it keeps
well in the refrigerator."]
10] Don't ever compare ground storage to the commercial high-energy-input 
storage practiced
commercially.  They pull varieties out of storage that aren't storage 
varieties at all [like
Delicious and Macintosh strains, for example]  You're not commercial and you 
don't want to be,
and you can't do as they do and get away with using nonstoring varieties.
11] Also don't compare storage in a refrigerator to root cellar storage.

Isn't it amazing what apples cost in the supermarket in January?  It's a 
challenge with a
possible hefty payoff if you can pull quality apples out of storage in 
January, if you can get
the right variety into the right storage and pull quality apples out.  And 
you can, too, but it
isn't as easy as it looks.  It wasn't worth my time to spray my own apples 
and store them
myself.  It wasn't an efficient use of my time and I didn't enjoy spraying.  
I never hooked up
with the right supplier of grown apples, so I stopped storing in root cellar. 
 If I'd had the
right source of Northern Spy I'd have kept storing and would have tried to 
sell during January
and February and March.
Charlie Paradise
Masachusetts/zone 5

> I don't own a "root
> cellar".  My basement, because of my furnace and air ducts is
> quite warm in the winter [w/ the A/C it is quite cool in the
> summer].  I don't have direct basement access so I don't have
> a "Bilco door" that I've seen used for winter time cool
> storage.  My garage is attached, but becomes close to the
> winter temps outside (and is too warm early in the season).
> So some of the apples can be processed for applesauce, and a
> small amount for pre-made pie filling and canned or frozen
> (when a freezer is purchased).  Some can be dried.  And some
> can be turned into cider.  But I'd like to keep some of the
> keepers for winter eating.  Any thoughts on how to create some
> ability to store the apples?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Chris Mauchline
> SE PA, zone 6
>
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