propriate fruit are placed in long-term storage. This 

 practice may include the more frequent use of the 

 starch-iodine test for maturity assessment. 



Increased Labor 



Increasing harvest labor so that more fruit can be 

 picked in a shorter period of time is one way to reduce 

 the impact of the non-use of Alar; however, growers 

 must be able to handle the increased quantity of fruit. 

 Specifically, the orchard operation must be able to 

 move the fruit quickly from the orchard to the storage, 

 stack them in the storage, cool them quickly, and seal 

 the storage (if CA is used) if the increased labor is going 

 to pay off. Beside the availability of additional labor, 

 one problem which may prevent this practice from 

 being feasible is the size of the refrigeration plant. If 

 there is not adequate refrigeration to cool the high 

 quantity of fruit being placed in the storage per day 

 then the additional labor is not truly reducing the 

 impact of the non-use of Alar. 



Long-term Changes 



Changes in Cultiuars 



One of the characteristics of the New England 

 apple industi-y which has increased the problems re- 

 lated to the loss of Alar is the large proportion (60 %) of 

 the production devoted to Mcintosh. A relatively 

 simple way of reducing the need for Alar is to replace 

 Mcintosh with other cultivars which allow an expan- 

 sion of the harvest season or do not require a chemical 

 "stop-drop." Several cultivars have potential in New 

 England, such as Gala, Mutsu, Libeiiy, Jonagold, and 

 Red Fuji. Older cultivars like Coitland and Macoun 

 also may deserve a greater role in the industry. Obvi- 

 ously, severed years are required to change cultivars, 

 and several years are required to develop markets for 

 new cultivars. 



Changes in Strains 



Several Mcintosh strains are now available. 

 Marshall Mcintosh has been the most planted strain 

 over the last few years, primarily because of its higher 

 coloring potential. Additional benefits which come 

 from Marshall Mcintosh are given by its earlier color- 

 ing and earlier ripening. It colors approximately 10 

 days prior to Rogers Mcintosh and ripens approxi- 

 mately a week earlier. These two differences allow an 

 advancement of the Mcintosh harvest season without 

 the kind of quality loss found with the use of a chemical 

 such as Ethrel. However, planting entirely to Marshall 

 Mcintosh will not reduce the losses associated with the 



non-use of Alar, because the entire harvest season will 

 be earlier and just as concentrated as with a standard 

 strain of Mcintosh. Future orchards should have a mix 

 of Marshall Mcintosh with other strains to allow the 

 maximum expansion of the harvest season. 



Pioneer Mac (recently named by Adams County 

 Nursery) technically is not a strain of Mcintosh but 

 actually is a seedling of Mcintosh and thus a new 

 cultivar; however, its fruit are virtually indistinguish- 

 able from Mcintosh and undoubtedly will be accepted 

 as Mcintosh. Its reported advantage over standard 

 Mcintosh is that it ripens 2 weeks later. In 1988 at the 

 University of Massachusetts Horticultural Research 

 Center we established a replicated trial to compare 

 Pioneer Mac to Marshall Mcintosh and Rogers Mcin- 

 tosh. When information is available it will be reported 

 through Fruit Notes. The benefits of Pioneer Mac may 

 be great, but as with Marshall Mcintosh it will be 

 necessary to include earlier-ripening strains of Mcin- 

 tosh to provide a true expansion of the hai-vest season. 



Rootstocks 



Changes in rootstocks must occur to give benefits 

 in two areas. First, more dwarfing rootstocks must be 

 used. Large plantings of Mcintosh as semi-dwaif trees 

 will not be feasible to maintain without Alar. Growers 

 must consider moving into the dwarf categoiy, using 

 M.9, M.9 EMLA, M.26, Mark, and possibly Ott.3 as 

 rootstocks. Trees on these rootstocks are much easier 

 to prune, require less spray material, and most impor- 

 tantly, in the context of this article, are much easier to 

 harvest than are semi-dwarf or standard trees. Nearly 

 all the fruit are harvestable from the ground, and the 

 harvesting process can be done more rapidly. Because 

 of high light penetration into the canopy, more of the 

 fruit are highly colored, making selective hai-vesting 

 less of a priority while improving packout. For more 

 general information on these dwarfmg rootstocks see 

 Fruit Notes [51(4):22-24; 52(l):l-4; 53(l):4-7; 53(3):3- 

 6;and54(l):ll-15]. 



The second potential benefit of a change in root- 

 stocks is their effect on ripening. For three years we 

 have been conducting research at the University of 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Research Center on the 

 effects of rootstocks on apple fruit quality and ripening 

 [see Fruit Notes 52(2):5-10], and have found that Mark 

 can delay ripening of Delicious and Mcintosh fruit by as 

 much as 5 days when compared to fruit from trees on 

 M.26 EMLA and Ott.3. The use of rootstock to expand 

 the harvest season should complement the use of dif- 

 ferent strains to expand further the Mcintosh hai-vest 

 season. 



Fruit Notes, Spring, 1989 



