Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[scarlettohara]

I have bought 2 apple trays and I understand I need to wrap the apples first in newspaper. Does it have to be newspaper or could I use tissue paper which I have lots of ? Do they have to be kept completely in the dark or is a shed with a window OK ? Thanks

[..lay a little egg for me]

Someone was asking me about how we stored our apples, and this is what I said to her in my e-mail:

 

When we pick the apples I check each one over and put the unblemished apples in one box, in layers separated by newspaper or cardboard, which we aim to keep the longest and any blemished apples (i.e., any focus for potential rot, such as s"Ooops, word censored!"es, evidence of codling moth, etc) in another box which is for eating first. Any with bruises already evident are given to Sam. Then we also categorize the apples according to their keeping qualities so we end up with a series of boxes that have to be gone through in order. We eat the windfalls first, the blemished apples second and the most perfect apples of the good keeping variety are left to last. This way we have apples right through to March or April.

 

I think tissue paper would be OK, but it would go soggy if any apples turn out to have blemishes which then start off a rot. We don't have much newspaper as we don't buy them, so we just separate each layer with cardboard. It does mean that if one starts to rot it sets off the others in the layer but we think it is a reasonable compromise. I don't know how important the dark is, but we store ours in a shed with windows and they keep plenty long enough!

[Christian]

I use tissue paper and newspaper depending on what I have. I separate each apple with cardboard as that tends to stop ruining the whole lot if one is dodgy. I don't think it has to be dark for the storage. My shed has a window.

[scarlettohara]

Thank you, I think the apple trays (which stack) do the job of the carboard

[sjp]

I've always used newspaper because

A:- is cheap

B:- it's what Nan always used

C:- if it ain't bust don't fix it