Apples are native to Europe and Central Asia and the Xinjiang region of China. Almaty in Kazakhstan and Alimali in Xinjiang have the reputation of Apple City. Fruits such as ringo, citrus, and flower bonus in ancient China are considered to be native Chinese apple varieties or fruits similar to apples. The cultivation records of apples in China can be traced back to the Western Han Dynasty, when Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty cultivated Lin Yong and Tang in Shanglinyuan, which were mostly used for incense clothing, etc., and were also placed at the head of the bed as incense or placed on clothes, originally as sachets, less consumed. However, there are also views that Lin Yong and Qiao are modern sand fruits that were once mistaken for apples, and the real sense of the apple was introduced to China from Central Asia during the Yuan Dynasty, when it was only available at the court.
Chinese native apple varieties were widely cultivated in present-day Hebei, Shandong and other places before the Qing Dynasty, and are characterized by small yields, small fruits, thin skin, sweet taste, but not resistant to storage and easy to break, so they are expensive, and the Beijing banner people used them as tribute fruits during the Qing Dynasty. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Americans introduced Western varieties of apples in Yantai, Shandong and other places, and after the Russo-Japanese War, Japan also set up an agricultural test base in the Kumatake Manchurian Annex, introduced Western apples and crossbred them. Yantai and Dalian have thus become famous apple producing areas today. After the Republican period, Western varieties of apples gradually occupied a major position in the Chinese market, Chinese native varieties of apples were gradually eliminated by fruit farmers, the planting range continued to shrink, and finally only a small amount of preservation in the Huailai area of Hebei Province, but these fruit trees were also extinct in China around the 1970s.
Winter apples have been an important food in Asia and Europe for thousands of years, being picked in late autumn and stored in cellars to protect against frost. In the 16th century, the Spanish introduced many Old World plants to Chile's Chiloé Islands, where apple trees adapted well. Apples were introduced to North America by colonists in the 17th century, and in 1625, the Rev. William Blaxton planted the first apple orchard on the North American continent in Boston. The only plant in the genus Apple, native to the United States, is Pacific begonia. Apple varieties brought in from Europe spread along Native American trade routes and were cultivated on colonial farms. An apple nursery in the United States in 1845 sold 350 "best" varieties. This suggests that by the early 19th century, new varieties had been bred in large numbers in North America. In the 20th century, irrigation projects began in eastern Washington, developing a multibillion-dollar fruit industry, of which apples were the main product.
Until the 20th century, the method of preserving apples in winter was to store apples in freeze-proof cellars for farmers' own use or to sell. However, with the development of train and road transportation, the transportation of fresh apples has become more and more convenient, and there is no need for cellars. First used in the United States in the 1960s, controlled atmosphere devices kept apples fresh year-round through high humidity, low oxygen, and controlled carbon dioxide levels.
