fruit could have been harvested prior to October 24. To 

 confirm this result, sequential harvests were made in 

 1989, and maturity and quality were assessed (Table 

 3). The first harvest was made on October 6. Flesh 

 firmness was 19.1 lbs, red color was poor, and no fruit 

 had watercore; an indicator of the proper maturity to 

 harvest. Although soluble solids were 14.1, and starch 

 hydrolysis had started according to the starch-iodine 

 test, these fruit were not mature and harvest would 

 have been inappropriate. Red color developed dramati- 

 cally and to an acceptable intensity by October 13. Wa- 

 tercore had developed in 60% of the fruit and 30% were 

 climacteric, indicating that fruit were ripening and 

 harvest at this time was appropriate. Flesh firmness 

 was 20.4 lbs, soluble solids were 14.7%, and starch 

 hydrolysis continued to the point where some fruit had 

 no visible signs of starch present. By October 18, flesh 

 firmness and starch levels had declined further, sol- 

 uble solids had increased, and percent watercored and 

 climacteric fruit remained unchanged. October 13 

 coincided with the end of Golden Delicious harvest and 

 October 18 was just prior to the harvest of Rome. 

 The watercore shown by Fuji was not severe, and 



probably it should not be considered a 

 negative feature. The watercore ap- 

 peared to dissipate in storage and no 

 breakdown developed; breakdown fre- 

 quently is associated with excessive 

 watercore at harvest. 



Red Coloring Strains 



There are many red-coloring 

 strains of Fuji that have been identified 

 but few of them are legally available. 

 Many will become available from the 

 IR-2 program in the near future. Red Fuji strains have 

 not been evaluated properly, so there is no good basis 

 for choosing one strain over another right now. Evi- 

 dence from Japan suggests that Fuji strains act differ- 

 ently under different environmental conditions, thus 

 making prediction of performance of individual strains 

 in our climate extremely tenuous. All Fuji strains are 

 in short supply. We believe that it is more important to 

 get a red-coloring strain and gain experience with it 

 rather than getting a specific strain whose perform- 

 ance is as yet unproven. 



Conclusion 



It is our conclusion that the season in Massachu- 

 setts is long enough in most locations to grow and 

 mature Red Fuji properly. Weather conditions in New 

 England may allow us to produce one of the most highly 

 colored Red Fuji apples in the United States. We feel 

 that Fuji will be an important apple cultivar in the 

 future and New England may be a favored place to 

 grow this apple that has exceptional shelf life and 

 storage potential. 



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Fruit Noies, Spring, 1990 



