Problem with apple

Probably a variation of bitter pit. Some varieties and some rootstocks are prone to it in certain conditions.
Several causes:
A young tree.
A hard-pruned tree.
A tree that's been given too much nitrogen-rich feed.
A dwarf tree that's had irregular care.
A drought-intolerant rootstock (such as MM106) with irregular water supply.
A tree that self-pollinated rather than received pollen from a different variety.
A tree where pollination was poor (perhaps a light crop due to bad weather at blossom time).

Do you know which variety and rootstock you have?
How old is the tree?
How have you been growing, managing and pruning the tree?
How have you been growing it?

HI FB

It does fall into some of the reasons you have given. Its 3 years old, I mulched it with home made compost. Cant remember the root stock but as far as I can remember it was a dwarfing one. I is planted in the ground and is left pretty much to its own devices so could be described as irregular care and watering. It was the only apple tree I had on my plot, i have planted a second this year so pollination has always been poor, hopefully will improve next year.

Bitter pit is thought to be caused by lack of calcium in the fruit.

Young trees expend what calcium they can find on growing new shoots, so the fruit of young growing trees is often malnourished and poor quality.

Poor pollination (or self-pollination) tends to make the plant less enthusiastic about fully nourishing the fruit.

Rootstocks which are dwarf (or drought-intolerant in dry soil) sometimes can't absorb enough calcium from the soil.
The very vigorous M25 rootstock works well in preventing bitter pit for me, as does MM111 which isn't prone to it in neutral to alkaline soil but is very prone to bitter pit in acidic soils. MM106 seems to encourage really bad bitter pit in my soil - many varieties not noted for bitter pit get it on MM106 in my soil.

Acid soils can "lock up" calcium (just like you take a calcium tablet to neutralise acid indigestion) and this entrapment of calcium prevents absorption but roots.
Very vigorous roots may be able to find enough water and nutrients even in peculiar sols....at the price of what might become a large tree.
If your soil is too acid, have a small bonfire and put an occasional light sprinkling of ashes around your bitter-pit-prone tree.
Not too much ash or you'll make the soil pH too alkaline and you'll get "iron chlorosis" with yellow between the veins on the leaves.
Keep ashes well away from blueberries or cranberries.

I inherited a Bramley on my allotment, rootstock unknown (the faded label I found at its feet says it was bought from B&Q).

Anyway, I have stored a couple of dozen fruit from it, they looked fine when I put them in the shed but now they have developed bitter pit.

Any suggestions on what I can do for the tree this winter / next season to ameliorate the problem next time?

I saw the bonfire ash suggestion but we aren't allowed bonfires. Maybe some lime-based commercial product would help?

My soil is clay, seems to be on the acid side of neutral judging by the lack of scab on my potatoes.

My trees have bitter pit too...next year I'm going to go out all guns blazing to try and sort this out!!
I am aware I need to use a general purpose fertilizer - avoiding sulphate of ammonia ( high in nitrates) and sulphate of potash ( potassiun rich) as these tend to make it worse.

The frustrating thing is that on closer inspection the ancient orchard around here grow fruit with out disease!! Having said that- they are mostly for cider.

My trees are old and local varieties..and still affected, so I'm putting my problem down to water and calcium shortage.

Oh- I forgot to say that I have sandy, acidic soil.

Bitter pit can be caused by too much winter pruning or incorrect pruning at any time of year.
It can also be made worse in acid soils or by using too much nitrogen fertiliser.

The relatively dry summers, the strength and quantity of the sun and the hot peak daytime temperatures in East Anglia are hard on many fruit trees. The low levels of soil moisture here resulting from the above factors in summer make it difficult for plants to find what they need from the soil, so the fruit end up suffering.

The commonly sold rootstocks in garden centres and nurseries don't tend to do so well here in East Anglia unless well cared for or when they are in unusually favourable locations. The common M27, M9, M26 and MM106 all need regular irrigation in most summers here if they are to have enough water to produce quality fruit.
I rarely use any of those rootstocks nowadays because of the intensive management required.
By switching from MM106 to M25 rootstock (also MM111 but it is best in neutral to slightly alkaline soil) I much reduced my bitter pit problem, even in varieties known to be prone to bitter pit. The strong M25 roots evidently do better than MM106 at finding all that the plant requires even when the soil was droughty.
On the other hand, many varieties not noted for bitter pit (and any that are noted for bitter pit) are all problematic for me when grown on MM106 or smaller rootstocks.

I have Discovery on MM106 and the amount of bitter pit it suffers is about ten times more than someone nearby with a Discovery on M25. It is not unusual for my Discovery MM106 to have more than half the fruit inedible from bitter pit - not to mention fruit losses to other problems.

So while you might be able to be careful with pruning or feeding, it's quite likely that you'll just have to "make do" with your existing tree as it is and accept that your fruit won't store long.

Are the old-orchard trees on seedling rootstock and therefore the strong roots find all the plant needs, compared to your more recently planted trees which might be in the modern fashion of dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstocks which need much better soil management?

I think it's notable that many of the excellent ultra-late-keeping apples are also prone to bitter pit. Examples such as Bramley, Sturmer, Ashmead, Boskoop, Hambledon, Striped Beefing etc.
Our ancestors loved them for their long keeping properties - but how did they avoid bitter pit spoiling the fruit?
My suspicion is that we want to grow the old varieties but we don't want to grow them the way they were grown when our ancestors grew them. Often they were grown on relatively poor soil, under grass cover, with minimal spraying/feeding/irrigation and were grown on very vigorous seedling rootstocks as full standard trees.
And I have to say that several years ago my fruit quality took a giant leap - becoming what it should be - when I switched to growing those old-timers in an old-fashioned way, on M25 rootstock.
I've said a few times - and I still stand by my claim - that with the old-timers in my area I can get more fruit, of better quality, at an earlier tree age, from M25 rootstock than from any other rootstock.

Here are some Suffolk orchard groups moaning about the poor performance of the "recommended" MM106 rootstock in this area:
http://www.suffolkbiodiversity.org/c...April%2012.pdf