Eating apple trees

Dessert apple trees: choosing by flavour and eating season

Dessert apples, also known as fresh-eating apples, are cultivars selected primarily for eating raw. Their fruit may be crisp or melting, sweet or sharp, exceptionally juicy, richly aromatic, spicy, honeyed or slightly tannic.

The appearance and size of the fruit should not be the only criteria. A large, highly coloured apple is not necessarily more enjoyable than a smaller heritage cultivar with a complex flavour.

Texture, aroma, the balance between sugar and acidity, harvest season, eating period and storage potential are usually more useful characteristics when choosing a variety.

It is also important to distinguish the picking date from the best eating period. Some summer apples are ready to eat immediately, while many autumn and winter cultivars improve after several weeks of storage.

Summer, autumn and storage apples

Useful characteristics when choosing a dessert apple

When should dessert apples be picked?

An apple intended for immediate eating can generally be harvested at a more advanced stage than fruit that must remain in storage for several months.

For long storage, pick once the fruit has reached physiological maturity but before it begins to soften or fall in large numbers.

Fruit harvested too early remains hard, acidic, starchy and poorly aromatic. It may shrivel during storage without developing its expected flavour.

Fruit harvested too late is more vulnerable to bruising, storage rots and internal disorders. Its keeping period is shortened, even when it tastes excellent at picking time.

The date indicated for a cultivar is only an approximate period. Maturity may move forwards or backwards according to the country, region, exposure, crop load, rootstock and temperatures during the season.

View the apple harvest calendar

Harvest dates should be confirmed by observing the fruit itself. The same cultivar does not ripen on exactly the same date in every European climate.

Simple ways to assess apple maturity

Why should some apple trees be picked in several rounds?

Apples on the same tree do not always ripen simultaneously. Flowers opened over several days, and fruit exposed to sunlight on the outside of the crown may develop faster than shaded fruit.

Selective picking means harvesting only the apples that have reached the correct stage, then returning several days later for the remaining fruit.

Two or three picking rounds may be necessary for summer apples, cultivars prone to fruit drop and trees with uneven maturity.

Harvesting the whole tree at the first visit produces a mixture of mature apples and fruit that is still too green.

Waiting until the last apples are ready may instead allow the first fruit to become overripe, soft or fallen.

Begin with the best-exposed fruit and assess its background colour, flavour and ease of detachment. Leave apples that still resist firmly or remain very green.

How to pick apples without damaging them

Harvest during dry weather, preferably when the fruit is not covered with dew and has not become excessively warm in strong sunlight.

Hold each apple in the palm of your hand without squeezing it with your fingers. Lift it gently and detach it with its stalk.

Even light pressure can create a bruise that only becomes visible several days later.

Place the fruit carefully into a shallow container. Do not throw apples into buckets or empty them roughly into crates.

Separate fallen, split, bruised, insect-damaged and stalkless fruit. It may still be eaten or processed quickly, but it should not be mixed with apples intended for storage.

Sort apples before storage

Sorting begins at harvest. Reserve healthy, firm and undamaged fruit with intact stalks for long-term storage.

A small wound can become the starting point for rot. One deteriorating apple can then contaminate neighbouring fruit.

Separate apples by cultivar and picking date. Storage life varies greatly, and mixing varieties makes it difficult to know which fruit should be eaten first.

The largest apples are sometimes more difficult to store than medium-sized fruit, particularly when their flesh is more advanced or prone to internal disorders.

Place very large fruit and any apples with minor imperfections in a batch that will be checked and eaten first.

Storing apples at home

Apples keep best in a cold, humid, dark and ventilated environment. For a small quantity, a refrigerator generally provides the most consistent conditions.

A temperature of approximately 1 to 4°C slows respiration, softening and the development of many storage fungi. The fruit must not be allowed to freeze.

Place apples in the vegetable compartment, perforated bags or slightly open containers so that humidity remains relatively high without creating permanent condensation.

A cellar, store room or garage may be suitable when the temperature remains low and reasonably stable. A building regularly heated above 10°C will only provide short-term storage.

Arrange the fruit in shallow layers without compression. Paper, trays or moulded fruit inserts can reduce contact and make inspection easier.

Check stored apples every week. Remove any fruit that softens, develops a mark or begins to rot.

Eat the earliest cultivars and the ripest batches first. True winter apples should be monitored until they reach their optimum eating quality.

Why should apples be stored separately from other produce?

Apples release ethylene, a natural gas involved in fruit ripening. In an enclosed space, it can accelerate the ageing of the apples themselves and of certain vegetables stored nearby.

Avoid storing large quantities of apples for long periods beside produce that is particularly sensitive to ethylene. Good ventilation reduces its accumulation in a cellar or fruit store.

Apples also release aromas and can absorb external odours. Do not store them near fuel, paint, plant protection products, rotting potatoes or other strongly scented materials.

Some apples improve during storage

After harvest, starch continues to change, acidity gradually decreases and aromas continue to develop. A genuine storage apple can therefore become sweeter and more fragrant after several weeks.

This development should not be confused with unlimited improvement. After reaching its optimum, the apple begins to lose firmness, acidity and juice before becoming mealy or vulnerable to rot.

Taste several fruits regularly to identify the best eating period. Record the picking and tasting dates for each cultivar, as these observations will be particularly useful in future seasons.

Pollination and cultivar selection

Most dessert apple trees crop more reliably when another genetically different cultivar flowers at a compatible time.

Check the flowering period, ploidy and pollen fertility of each cultivar rather than relying only on the general flowering group.

A triploid cultivar can produce excellent apples, but its pollen is generally of poor fertility. Where the trees depend on one another for pollination, a triploid should be accompanied by two compatible diploid cultivars.

The most useful combination includes compatible flowering periods and different eating seasons. It ensures pollination while extending the harvest from summer into winter.

A flowering crab apple may also provide useful pollen when it flowers at the correct time and grows sufficiently close to the fruiting trees.

Which dessert apple tree should you choose?

For apples that can be eaten directly from the tree, choose a summer or early-autumn cultivar with good eating quality immediately after harvest.

For fruit that can be kept during winter, choose a genuine storage cultivar and make sure that a refrigerator, cold cellar or suitable fruit store is available.

For distinctive flavours, explore sharp, spicy, musky, nutty or lightly tannic heritage cultivars.

For children or anyone who prefers mild fruit, choose a sweet, juicy and relatively low-acid cultivar.

For a garden or orchard receiving few treatments, give particular attention to resistance or tolerance to apple scab, canker, powdery mildew and storage diseases.

Plant several ripening periods rather than several varieties that all mature at the same time. This allows each cultivar to be harvested and eaten at the stage that suits it best.