B. Watercore: The more watercore in a fruit, the firmer it 

 may pressure test, even though increasing watercore indi- 

 cates increasing fruit maturity. Pressure tests may indi- 

 cate very little about "condition" of watercored apples. 



C. Water loss: If apples are losing water rapidly, they may 

 "soften" due to loss of turgor, i.e., wilting. This soften- 

 does not represent what is usually regarded as "loss of con- 

 dition." 



There are probably other complicating factors, also, but these 

 examples illustrate the importance of observing the fruit you are 

 testing, recognizing symptoms of complicating conditions, and being 

 careful about how you interpret the results of pressure tests. 



With the importance of firmness in the acceptability of apples, 

 and the ease of using pressure testers, these instruments seem cer- 

 tain to remain as key determinants of apple quality in the foresee- 

 able future. Yet, it is shocking to see how erratically these de- 

 vices are used. At present, a term, like "10-lb Mcintosh" may actu- 

 ally mean little to anyone but the person who tested the fruit; these 

 same apples may test 12 lbs. to another person, and 8 lbs to still 

 a third person. Yet, Mcintosh apples truly testing 12 lbs. of pres- 

 sure have grossly different potential than ones truly testing 8 lbs. 

 If we are going to use firmness as a meaningful guide to apple qual- 

 ity, we all need to re-examine our testing procedures, and do our 

 utmost to standardize them so that our determinations can become 

 more comparable and our interpretation can be more accurate. Here 

 is a problem that can be overcome with good judgement and little or 

 no expense. 



*************** 



APPLE TREES ON M.26 



William J. Lord 

 Department of Plant and Soil Sciences 



Observations this past year show that the vigor of non-bear- 

 ing trees on M.26 is variable. ( Assuming that all the trees are 

 on M.26.) Trees of the same variety , within a block, may be ex- 

 tremely variable in some orchards with some weak and/or difficult 

 to train. This may mean that trees of M.26 react more to unfavor- 

 able growing conditions than those on more vigorous size-control 

 rootstocks . 



Roger Young, Kearneysville, West Virginia, reported at the 

 19th Conference of the International Dwarf Fruit Tree Association 

 on March, 1976, that leaning in a test orchard of the trunk or leader 

 (central leader not being upright) of trees on M.26 was a problem 



