Abstract: In order to meet the demand of the fruit market in Northern Xinjiang for early ripening apple varieties, 27 samples of early and medium ripening apples from three regions in Northern Xinjiang were comparatively and comprehensively evaluated for their appearance and nutritional quality. The results showed that there were significant differences in vertical and transverse diameters, individual fruit mass and hardness among different varieties (P < 0.05). Among all samples tested, the highest content of calcium was found in the ‘Atunuke’ cultivar from Tekesi County (337.70 mg/kg), the highest content of zinc in the ‘Bingtangguo’ cultivar from Tekesi County (6.3 mg/kg), the highest content of soluble sugar in the ‘Wangshanhong’ cultivar from Yining County (7.38 g/100 g), the highest content of malic acid in both the ‘Gezidan’ cultivar from Tacheng County and the ‘Maixirefu’ cultivar from Tekesi County (8.58 g/kg), the highest content of sugar acid in the ‘Xialimeng’ cultivar from Tekesi County (42.46), and the highest content of VC in the ‘Tachenghong 1’ cultivar from Tacheng County (59.59 mg/100 g). Reasonable satisfaction degree analysis showed that ‘Tachenghong 1’, ‘Gezidan’, ‘Erbatai’ and ‘Baitian’ were suitable to be planted in Tacheng city, ‘Xialimeng’, ‘Qiuyouguozi’, ‘Maixirefu’ and ‘Youguozi’ were suitable to be planted in Tekesi county, and ‘Sitagan’ and ‘Wangshanhong’ were suitable to be planted in Yining county. However, from the results of fruit grading according to the quality attributes, the comprehensive economic traits of the apple cultivars tested were at a low level on the whole, indicating the necessity of enhancing the management level of high-yield cultivation of the selected cultivars to improve the comprehensive economic traits of fruits.

Key words: native apple; appearance characteristics; quality characteristics; satisfaction degree evaluation; comprehensive evaluation