HARVESTING AND STORING APPLES: A TIME FOR OBSERVING DETAILS 



W.J. Bramlage and F.W. Southwick 

 Department of Plant and Soil Sciences 



The apple harvest season is a hectic time for a fruit grower. 

 His attention is often focused on his harvest labor, and perhaps 

 on his harvest sales operation. And, unfortunately, something may 

 have to "give." Don't let it be your storage operation! Shortcuts 

 or mistakes in September can mean disaster in April. If a grower 

 is to market quality fruit in the spring, he must pay attention to 

 details in the fall. Some comments follow on things to be watched. 



Weather . Hot weather shortly preceding and during harvest is gen- 

 erally detrimental. It ripens fruit rapidly, leading to harvesting 

 of overmature apples with shorter storage life. It results in 

 poorer coloring, especially if night temperatures are high, and 

 again leads to harvesting riper apples because it is necessary to 

 wait for at least 33% red color. It increases susceptibility to 

 scald, making effective scald treatments crucial. If it's hot dur- 

 ing the harvest period, the hot apples increase the heat load going 

 into a storage room. Unless ample refrigeration is available, it 

 is probably best to allow these hot apples to cool overnight in the 

 orchard, and bring them into storage early the next morning. 



If the weather is cool just before and during harvest, the 

 prospects for high quality fruit in the Spring are much better. 

 Nevertheless, there is need to get apples off the tree and into 

 storage as quickly as possible. The riper the fruit at harvest, 

 the shorter is its storage life. With late varieties, freezing 

 is a concern. If it gets cold enough that apples freeze, a whole 

 new set of problems arise. Freezing causes softening, and probably 

 promotes fruit breakdown during storage. It is probably correct 

 to assume that any freezing causes damage and that fruit that has 

 been frozen should not be stored for long periods. If frozen to a 

 temperature of about 20-22°F, or for too long a time, the apples 

 will be killed and will begin to brown soon after thawing. 



Fruit maturity . Maturity is the stage of development at harvest. 

 If too immature at harvest, fruit will never develop top quality 

 flavor and may be more subject to shriveling, scald, bitterpit and 

 browncore after harvest. If overmature, fruit will deteriorate 

 quickly and be more subject to softening, breakdowns and rots. 



How to identify maturity is a difficult question. Pressure 

 test, color (especially undercolor), abscission, and flavor are 

 helpful guides, but experience with your own fruit may be your best 

 measure. Use of growth regulators has made this an even more dif- 

 ficult question. Alar* delays maturity, but not as much as many 

 people think. Its phenomenal drop control capability and its delay 



*Trade name 



