Storing Apples

Written by: Gharsanai Asghari

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, different provinces of Afghanistan have about 70,000 acres of apple orchards, which produce 260,000 tons annually. Many gardeners do not sell their apple in the season because of the low price and keep them so that they can sell them at a good price and cover their expenses. But sometimes the stored apples rot and the farmers face losses.

AEPO’s writer/producer has talked to some gardeners and an agricultural expert about this issue.

Zabith, a resident of Farza district, Kabul province says, “Last year we stored about 2800 kilograms apple to sell them in the winter but about half of them spoiled and we faced a loss of sbout 60 thousand Afghanis.”

A gardener, Abdul Khabir says, “Our garden has 80 apple trees and about 60 boxes of apples are obtained from it. We store apples for winter sale, which rot in about 15 boxes of them.”

What do some gardeners think that why they cannot store apple?

Mohammad Tahir, a resident of Maidan-Wardak Province, says, "I have 2 acres of apple orchards. We store apples in wooden boxes. Last year, I had stored about 140,000 kilograms of apples, which were all spoiled due to the heat.”

Taj Muhammad, a resident of Paghman district of Kabul province says, “Last year our stored apples spoiled because some worms spoiled apples were inside the boxes.”

Matiullah Zafari, an agricultural expert, says, “We have a store and a cold storage (cold room). Fresh fruits are stored for a short period of time, but we can keep them in the cold storage for a long time. Some apple gardeners do not pay attention when picking apples from the tree. They collect more apples in a tray which injures other apples and when they drop them on the ground, it also causes the apple to be injured.

Some of them do not pay attention when they put apples in boxes. They are not aware of the temperature and humidity of stores of cold storages."

How do some gardeners store apples?

Samiullah, a resident of Chak district of Maidan-Wardak province says, “We store apples in plastic containers of oil for the whole winter. And when we open the container, the apples look as fresh as they were in the beginning.”

Taj Muhammad says, “We dig the ground one meter deep and twelve meters long. We bury the apples in thirty centimeters deep and then spread the tarpaulin over the apples and pour soil on the tarpaulin.”

Matiullah says, “Gardeners should take care of apples in early stages. Apples picking kit should be with them. It is necessary to have gloves and special clothes because gloves prevent the transfer of germs from hands to apples.

 There should not be too many apples in the bucket so they will not put pressure on the apples.  Gardeners who piles apples, the piles should not be too tall.

To store in cartons, boxes, or in the ground, the gardeners must separate ripe apples from the raw apples, small from the big apples and rotten from the good apples and they should always be aware of the storages.”