Plant height, trunk diameter, leaf length, and chlorophyll content showed significant positive correlation with earliness in apple during juvenile phase. Principal component analysis confirmed that four traits including leaf length and chlorophyll content justified 87% of total variances, cumulatively. Path analysis results in the groups of early ripening cultivars showed that max and min rates of direct effects were 8.71 and −7.47 for leaf length and leaf width traits, respectively. High indirect effects were observed in other traits such as pedicle length, tree height, leaf chlorophyll, trunk diameter and annual growth rate through leaf width. So, it was confirmed the existence of a positive correlation between studied morphological markers and ripening time. As a consequence, this method may be applied with high confidence for selection of hybrid seedlings obtained from a high range of cross combinations in apple breeding programs. This screening method is a low cost, practical approach compared with other classic methods in apple breeding.