15 Best Winter Storage Apples

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Do you love having fresh apples on hand? You can enjoy having lots of fresh apples through the winter if you choose the best winter storage apple varieties. With just a little care, you’ll have apples on hand to use any time you want a fresh snack or for baking your favorite treats.

If you want to keep fresh apples over the winter, it’s important to know what to look for in an apple. Not all varieties will last for long-term storage.

Trust me, I’ve made this mistake before, and it’s really frustrating to fill your root cellar or basement with apples that go bad in a month or two.

What Apples Don’t Store Well

You will want to avoid apples that have thin skins. These softer types of apples bruise easily, and that spreads into rot. Once one apple starts to go bad, it doesn’t take long for the whole bushel to go bad.

A soft apple is an apple that has thin skin and a soft flesh texture. This includes many varieties of apples that won’t store well over the winter.

A few of them are:

Cortland – We have a lovely Cortland apple tree. It was planted by the previous owners and was just starting to produce when we bought the property.

Unfortunately, they are a very soft-textured apple and don’t store well. Even with cold and humid storage conditions in our root cellar, I’ve never been able to get them to last longer than a month.

It was so frustrating one year before I knew this, and we lost most of our fresh apples. Now I store them short-term but use them up for making applesauce or apple butter quickly.

Golden Delicious – This is another favourite apple variety we grow. Although they are ready to pick in October and you would expect they would store well, they have thinner skin than Red Delicious apples and just don’t keep very long.

Jonagold – This popular sweet apple variety is great for baking but is also a softer apple that won’t last long. So make sure you use them up quickly.

Best Winter Storage Apples

If you want to have a good supply of fresh apples all winter, you need to select good storage apple varieties to begin with.

There are so many apple varieties, but not all of them make good winter keepers.

Generally, apples that have thick skin and are more tart in flavor make the best storage apples.

Once you’ve decided what apple varieties you want to keep over winter, make sure you use these tips on how to store apples long term.

Here’s a quick look at all 15 varieties, when they’re ready to pick, and how long they’ll keep in storage. Then keep scrolling for more on each one.

Apple Variety	Ready To Pick	Storage Time
Arkansas Black	October to November	Up to 6 months
Cameo	October	Up to 4 months
Crispin	September to October	Up to 4 months
Fuji	September to October	Up to 9 months
Golden Russet	Early October	5 months
Granny Smith	Late September to mid-October	Up to 4 months
Haralson	September to October	7 months
Honeycrisp	Early to mid-September	4 to 5 months
Ida Red	Late September to mid-October	Up to 6 months
MacIntosh	Late August to early September	2 to 3 months
Northern Spy	Late October to early November	Up to 3 months
Pink Lady	Late October to November	5 months or more
Red Delicious	Late September	Up to 5 months
Rome	Late September to October	5 months or more
Stayman Winesap	Mid to late October	6 months or more

Arkansas Black

Arkansas Black has an amazing color; right off the tree, they have a dark reddish-purple skin that turns more black in storage.

It has a slightly acidic taste with crisp, juicy flesh, making it a great fresh-eating apple. When the apples are first picked, they are very hard and need to be in storage for a while before eating. The flavor also mellows during storage.

Arkansas Black is ready to pick in October and November, one of the last apples of the season. With good storage conditions, it can be stored for up to 6 months.

Cameo

Cameo apples were discovered as a chance seedling in a Washington state orchard in 1987, likely a natural cross between Red Delicious and Golden Delicious trees growing nearby.

They have a bright red striped skin over a creamy background, with firm, crisp flesh and a sweet, aromatic flavor. They’re good for both fresh eating and baking.

Cameo is ready to pick in October. With good cold storage, it can last up to 4 months.

Crispin

Crispin apples, also called Mutsu, are a newer apple variety introduced in Japan in 1948. It’s a large apple with a sweet taste and both crisp and tender flesh.

The skin is a yellowish-green color, and it looks similar to the Golden Delicious apple variety that it was developed from.

Crispin is ready to pick in September and October and is a true dual-purpose apple. It’s delicious as a fresh-eating apple but is also excellent for baking.

With good cold storage conditions, they can store for up to 4 months.

Fuji

Fuji apples were developed in Japan and released in 1962. The skin has a yellow-green background covered with pink speckles.

It’s known to be one of the sweetest apple varieties and has a crisp and juicy flesh. This makes it the perfect fresh-eating apple, but they also holds its shape during cooking, so they are great for baking too.

Fuji is ready to pick in September and October. It’s also a great storage apple. With the right storage conditions, Fuji apples can last up to 9 months.

Golden Russet

Golden Russet apples were discovered in the early 1800s, but little is known about their origins. We had a russet apple tree on our old farm. It was one of our favorite apples!

With its sweet taste and acidity, it makes an excellent eating apple that is also good for cider production. The russeted skin helps this variety to be resistant to insect damage, scab, powdery mildew, and canker.

It’s ready to pick in early October and, with proper cold storage, can keep for up to 5 months.

Granny Smith

The Granny Smith apple is probably the most instantly recognizable apple variety. After all, it’s been the main green apple sold in grocery stores for as long as I can remember.

It has a tough skin that protects it from damage, making it a great apple for shipping and storage.

With its very acidic taste, it’s not normally used for fresh eating on its own but is great when used in a mixed dish. The flesh doesn’t turn brown quickly after cutting, so it’s a good option for using in salads and fruit platters with dip.

It’s also a classic baking apple, especially for apple pie.

Granny Smith is ready to pick from late September to mid-October. With cold storage, Granny Smith apples can last up to 4 months.

Haralson

Haralson apples were developed at the University of Minnesota and released in 1922. They’re known for being extremely cold-hardy, making them a favorite with northern growers and homesteaders in colder climates.

They have a striped red skin over a greenish-yellow background, with very crisp, juicy flesh and a distinctive tart flavor. They’re excellent for baking, especially pies, and are also a popular choice for cider.

Haralson is ready to pick in September and October. With good cold storage, it can keep for 7 months, often lasting from harvest right through to mid-March.

Honeycrisp

Honeycrisp apples were also developed at the University of Minnesota, released in 1991. If you’ve bought apples at the grocery store in the last couple of decades, chances are you’ve had one, they’re one of the most popular varieties around.

They’re known for an exceptionally crisp, juicy texture and a mildly sweet, well-balanced flavor. The skin has a red blush over a yellow-green background.

Honeycrisp is ready to pick in early to mid-September. It’s a bit pickier about storage than some other varieties on this list, it’s chilling-sensitive, so it does best stored around 37 to 39°F (3 to 4°C) rather than down at 32°F with the others.

Honeycrisp holds its best quality for 4 to 5 months in storage, though it can last 6 to 7 months if conditions are just right.

Ida Red

Ida Red is one of my favorite apples. This variety came to market in the 1940s after crossing Jonathan and Wagener varieties together.

Ida Red is a juicy apple with a sweet-tart taste. It’s great for fresh eating but also holds its shape while baking. I love using this variety when making apple sauce, apple crisp, or pies.

Ida Red is ready to harvest from late September to mid-October. With proper storage, it can last up to 6 months. I’ve had bushes of Ida Red apples last in our root cellar right through winter.

McIntosh

McIntosh apples are one of the most common varieties you’ll find in the grocery store. Found growing in Ontario in the early 19th century, it’s well suited to cold growing climates.

With its thick bright red skin and crisp bright white flesh, it’s exactly what you picture when you think of an apple.

Macs have a sweet taste with just a touch of acidity they are great apples for fresh eating and baking, especially in apple sauce.

They are ready to pick near the end of August to early September.

McIntosh apples can store for 2 to 3 months in cold storage, but the flavor weakens over time.

Northern Spy

Northern Spy was discovered in the early 1800s. It’s a bright red apple with yellow undertones that give it a pretty striped appearance.

Northern Spy is known for being a great winter-keeper apple. It’s a late-season apple ready to pick in late October or early November and stores well through the winter.

Unlike most winter storage apples, it has thinner skin and is easily bruised. Because of this, it isn’t as easy to find in stores. But it’s a great option to grow in your orchard or pick from a local farm.

Northern Spy apples have a sweet flavor, almost like they have a touch of honey. They are lovely for fresh eating and baking, a favorite for making apple pies!

With good cold storage, Northern Spy apples can last up to 3 months.

Pink Lady

Pink Lady is a newer apple variety developed in the 1970s, it’s also called Cripps Pink.

It’s a sweet-tart apple that leans a little more to the tart side but has a wonderful taste. It has bright white flesh that doesn’t oxidize (turn brown) quickly. This makes it wonderful for serving sliced apples or cooking.

It’s an excellent choice for fresh eating, baking, and storage. Pink Lady is one of the last apples of the season, ready to pick in late October or November. With good cold storage conditions, it can last 5 months or more.

Red Delicious

Red Delicious apples are a medium-sized apple with dark red skin, often having tiny yellow flecks. It’s more of a cone-shaped apple, looking quite different from most apple varieties.

It has thick skin that helps to protect the apple from damage. Red Delicious apples have a very mild but sweet flavor, and the flesh is juicy and crisp.

So if you like mild-tasting apples, you’ll enjoy this one as a fresh-eating apple. It doesn’t hold up very well for baking, though, so it’s best to use another variety for pies.

This variety is ready to pick in late September and, when stored close to 32 degrees with the right humidity, can last as long as five months.

Rome

The Rome apple has many names, it’s often called Rome Beauty, Red Rome, or Gillet’s Seedling. It’s known to be one of the best baking apples. It has a subtle flavor that’s not really sweet or tart.

Because of this, it’s not normally used as a fresh-eating apple. But the flavor is enhanced when the apple is cooked.

It also holds its shape well, making this a popular baking apple. Rome is ready to pick from late September to October. With good cold storage conditions, it can last 5 months or more.

Stayman Winesap

Stayman Winesap apples are an old multi-purpose apple good for fresh eating and baking.

It has firm yellow flesh and a tart taste. It matures late in the season, ready to pick from mid to late October, and has very thick skin. This makes it a great storage apple and can last 6 months or more when stored in a cold cellar.

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