They are generally stored just as they are picked, and then graded and packed as orders are received for them, shortly before being marketed from a retail operation on the premises or before being shipped to supermarkets for resale. Grading, packing and shipping of apples goes on from a few weeks to 12 months depending on the size of the orchard and the manner of marketing the orchard uses. Some orchards have the facilities to store, grade and pack all their own fruit. Others have all or part of their crop stored and packed by a cooperative facility. After harvest there is still work to be done before winter arrives.
Any equipment left in the orchard needs to be collected and put under cover.
Tree limbs broken by too heavy a fruit load need to be sawed off. One last mowing is done to keep the grass from providing too much cover to rodents. The main rodents that apple growers are concerned with are voles that will eat apple bark at or below ground level girdling a tree and thus killing it. Damage is limited by reducing their numbers by an application of poison bait after harvest, by trying to make the orchard habitat unattractive to them, and by protecting the tender bark of the trunks of young trees with guards of various types, and by cheering on the predators. We like foxes and coyotes.