MASSACHUSETTS STATE COLLEGE 

 UNITED STATES DEPARTISNT OF AGRICULTURE 

 AND COUNTY EXTENSION SERVICES IN AGRICULTURE AND 

 HOLIE ECONOMICS COOPERATING 



FRUIT NOTES - October, I937 



W. H. Thles 

 Extension Horticulturist 



A Beauty Parlor for Ariples 



The problem of getting color on apples that are shaded " s 

 common to all orchards. Frequently, perfectly good apples free 

 frorr. blemishes hnve to be clpssified as 3 grade rather than Fancy 

 slm.ply because of lack of color. Experiment r, recently conducted 

 by the Pomology Department indicate that exposure of green apples 

 to sunlight after they are picked vill m.aterial"'.y increase the 

 amount of red color. The idea that sunlight is necesspry in order 

 to get color on apples is not ne^", but the problem has been to get 

 this color "'ithout also getting damage from sunburn. Exposure to 

 direct sunlijrcht for the length of time necessary to develop the 

 red color will result in considerable su.nburn on the apples. In 

 these experiments apples were covered ^'ith cheesecloth. This 

 deflected some of the rays which produce sunburn and. yet permitted 

 enough to reach "che apples to promote coloring. 



Mcintosh apple's from the College Orchard that "'ere entir^e- 

 ly green when placed in the coloring frame vrith a single layer o"^' 

 cheesecloth over them acquired better than ^0% red color after 30 

 hours of exposure to bright sunlight without evidence of sunburn. 

 A similar lot exposed for the same length of time without the 

 cheesecloth covering developed considerable sunburn. Further 

 study will be necessary to learn whether or not this method of 

 coloring can be used e'Oonomica.lly and also I'^hat effect it will 

 have on the keeping quality of apples thus exposed. 



0. C. Roberts 



Growth Pr o moting Sub s tances 



During the pant year considerable interest has been mani- 

 fest in the field of "artificial" root stimulation, especially pl; 

 regards dormant cuttings of deciduous trees anvl shrubs. This 

 field began to absorb the talent of numerous r^jearch workers 

 following the much advertised v/ork carried on at the Boyce Thor - 

 son Institute in Yonkers, New York. Commercial chemical concerns 

 immediately recognized an opportunity to "cash in" and began to 

 manufacture and distribute various preparations. Hormodin, Root- 

 Gro, and Auxllin are preparations now on the market and presumably 

 others may appear if the demand, created either by results or 

 plain high-poi"ered advertising, is sufficient. \ 



Various chemicals, consisting mainly of Indole-Acidc, have 

 been utilized and up to the present time the Indole-Butyric Acid 

 has been largely used in commercial preparations. At the College 

 we have tried various of the basic chemicals alone and in combina- 

 tion, and with varying degrees of strength and periods of expos- 

 sure. This past summer, working mainly with dormant apple cuttings, 

 we got very poor results. In some cases, it seemed that a, par- 

 ticular treatment may have benefitted root formation, but the 



