8 - 



Immature fruit of all varieties is subject to more bitter 

 pit, shriveling, and brown core during storage than more 

 mature apples. 



Overmature fruit is more susceptible to water core, inter- 

 nal breakdown, flesh softening and rots than less mature 

 fruit either prior to harvest or during storage. 



Avoid excessively large fruit of a given variety when 

 selecting apples for long-term storage. Such fruit have 

 much poorer keeping quality than smaller sizes. Usually 

 fruit from light bearing older trees and from very young 

 trees are often unsuited for CA storage because of their 

 large size. 



Alar-85*-treated Mcintosh scheduled for storage should be 

 harvested at the same time as untreated fruit even though 

 the Alar- 85- sprayed fruit may be a pound or two firmer 

 than similar apples which have received no Alar-85. Most 

 of the flesh firmness advantage Alar-85- sprayed fruit pos- 

 sesses at harvest is lost during the first few months of 

 storage. The prime value of Alar-85 on bearing Mcintosh 

 trees is to provide superior preharvest drop control dur- 

 ing the latter part of their picking season rather than 

 serve this purpose when Mcintosh for CA storage should be 

 harvested (early part of the picking season) . The magni- 

 tude of preharvest drop is often relatively minor early 

 in the Mcintosh harvest season and can be controlled quite 

 well with NAA (naphthaleneacetic acid) . 



Late varieties which may be frozen on the trees should 

 never be harvested until the fruit thaws completely. Har- 

 vesting frozen fruit will result in visible injury at 

 points where they are grasped by pickers and wherever 

 they come into forceful contact with other fruit in pick- 

 ing or storage containers. Apples which have been frozen 

 can be expected to have hastened flesh softening (even if 

 no visible injury is present after thawing) and a short- 

 ened storage life. The lower the freezing point between 

 22° and 28"F, the greater the potential loss of flesh 

 firmness. Dispose of such fruit as rapidly as possible. 

 If the fruit temperature falls below 22°F, visible injury 

 to the fruit tissue can be expected once thawing takes 

 place. 



All varieties subject to storage scald should be treated 

 prior to storage with a suitable inhibitor if they are to 

 be stored beyond early January. Suggestions for prestor- 

 age treatments to control storage scald and decay organ- 



*Trade name 



