and very heavy. In general, the bloom density of 

 Imperial Gala was lower than that of the other 

 strains. Bloom on all trees was considered 

 'snowball* and excessive when compared to most 

 other cultivars. Although the lower bloom den- 

 sity of Imperial may have been real, it is of Uttle 

 practical significance because of the excessive 

 bloom that occurred on all strains in this trial. 

 All strains of Gala bloomed extensively and 

 comparably on one-year-old wood, accounting 

 for over two-thirds of the bloom. Following 

 June-drop, over two- thirds of the fruit that per- 

 sisted originated from one-year-old wood. Fruit 

 produced from bloom on one-year-old wood gen- 

 erally was small and the quality was inferior. 

 Since fruit size of Gala is normally small, and 



lateral fi^dt are even smaller, it is important to 

 develop a thinning strategy for all strains of 

 Gala to remove fiiiit developing from lateral 

 bloom selectively. 



Fruit Characteristics and Quality 



At normal harvest, 15 fruit per tree were 

 sampled. Fruit were weighed, flesh firmness 

 and soluble soUds measured, ground color and 

 starch pattern were rated, and p>ercent red color 

 on each fi-uit was estimated to the nearest 10%. 

 In 1991, finit were harvested September 3, 12, 

 and 19. Additionally, stem-end cracking was 

 evaluated and the length-to-diameter ratio was 

 determined. 



Fruit Notes, Winter, 1993 



17 



