Comparison of Ripening and Fruit Quality of 

 Gala and Mcintosh Apples at Harvest and 

 Following Air Storage 



Duane W. Greene and Wesley R. Autio 



Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Massachusetts 



Gala is becoming one of the most popular and 

 widely planted apple cultivars in the world. It is a very 

 high quality apple with broad consumer appeal. We 

 have been harvesting and evalu- 

 ating Gala/M.26 for several years 

 from trees planted at the Horti- 

 cultural Research Center in Bel- 

 chertown in 1978. Descriptions 

 and observations have appeared 

 in previous Fruit Notes articles 

 [49(2):18; 51(1):12-14]. Since 

 Gala appears to be such a promis- 

 ing apple, we initiated a study of 

 ripening, fruit quality, and stor- 

 age potential to determine if Gala 

 could be a reasonable alternative 

 to Mcintosh for growers in Massa- 

 chusetts who wish to reduce their 

 Mcintosh acreage. 



Fruit used in this investiga- 

 tion were collected in 1988 from 

 Kidd's D-8 Gala/M.26 planted in 

 1978 and Rogers Mclntosh/M.26 

 planted in 1976 at the University 

 of Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Research Center in Belchertown, 

 MA. The Mcintosh trees received 

 750 ppm of daminozide on July 

 18, 1988. 



Fruit Quality and Ripening 



Ten fruit per tree were col- 

 lected randomly from 3 Gala and 3 

 Mcintosh trees at weekly inter- 

 vals starting on August 24 and 

 continuing through October 19. 

 Fruit collection was made from 

 the interior and exterior portions 

 of all quadrants of each tree. On 

 each date fruit were evaluated for 

 percent and intensity of red color, 



flesh firmness, soluble solids, titratable acidity, fruit 

 weight, and internal ethylene. 



When the initial harvest was made on August 24, 



Fruit Notes, Spring, 1990 



