bins of fruit from orchard to packing house, bins were 

 transported in either a 20-bin stake-body truck or a 16- 

 bin tri-axle, fifth-wheel hitch trailer pulled by a pickup 

 truck. Tests were set up just as in the bin-carrier 

 orchard tests. Bins were transported 7 miles over 

 mostly gravel roads, at speeds of 20 to 25 mph. 



Overall, 58% of the fruit transported by truck and 

 38% of those on the trailer sustained bruises. On the 

 truck, bruises averaged 0.9 per fruit and on the trailer, 

 0.53 per fruit. Padding reduced bruising in both types 

 of transport. As in the orchard, most bruising and 

 bruise reduction occurred where fruit were in contact 

 with the side of the bin. However, padding in the 

 bottom of the bin also had some benefit. Results of this 

 study are summarized in Figure 2. 



The results of this study suggest that padding of 

 bins is a practical way to reduce bruising, but in fact, 

 padding is usually not feasible since it will interfere 



with air movement during cooling and with water 

 movement if the fruit are dipped or drenched. 



What these findings do provide is insight into how 

 and where bruising occurs and what a grower might do 

 to reduce bruising when it is a serious problem. 

 Clearly, most bruising during transport occurs where 

 fruit contact the bin and in a typical situation, about 

 1/3 of the apples in a bin are in contact with the wood. 



They also suggest that design and construction of 

 bins need re-evaluation, to see if alternatives might 

 lessen impact bruising. Improvements in transporta- 

 tion equipment also may be helpful; for example, use of 

 air-suspension systems may be advantageous. 



Finally, what these studies continue to demon- 

 strate is that careful training and supervision are the 

 key to controlling bruising during harvesting and 

 transport of apples. Some bruising is inevitable, but 

 the amount of bruising that occurs is in the hands of the 

 orchard manager and supervisor. 



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The Fifth International Controlled 

 Atmosphere Research Conference 



The Fifth International Controlled Atmosphere 

 Research Conference was held June 14-16, 1989, in 

 Wenatchee, WA, and Proceedings of that Conference 

 are now available. 



These Conferences grew from the New England- 

 New York CA Conferences held some 20 to 25 years ago 

 and have become truly international in scope, with 18 

 countries represented at the 1989 Conference. The 

 Proceedings of the 1989 Conference come in two vol- 

 umes, totalling 882 pages, and depict the "state-of-the- 

 art" of Controlled and Modified Atmosphere research. 



The Conference covered a very wide range of top- 

 ics, including basic and applied research, controlled 

 and modified atmospheres, many different commodi- 

 ties, and very specific as well as general topics. It also 

 included a series of papers examining the relationships 

 of mineral content to quality retention in CA storage. 



The scope of the Proceedings perhaps can be de- 

 scribed best by a listing of the sections in it. Volume 1 

 considers Pome Fruits (apples and pears) and is organ- 

 ized into sections on "Fundamental Studies", "Min- 

 eral Nutrition", "Apple Maturity", "Control of Storage 



Disorders/Diseases", "Quality Preservation", "Tech- 

 nology", and "Global Considerations". 



Volume 2 deals with "Other Commodities and 

 Storage Recommendations" and contains the follow- 

 ing sections: "Fundamental Studies", "Control of 

 Storage Disorders/Diseases", "Quality Preservation", 

 and "Technology". The Volume concludes with "Stor- 

 age Recommendations for Fruits, Vegetables, and 

 Ornamentals". For apples and pears, these recom- 

 mendations are broken down by cultivar, but for the 

 other commodities recommendations and comments 

 are presented for a crop as a unit. 



These Proceedings contain a wealth of information 

 for persons interested in the current thinking about 

 Controlled or Modified Atmosphere Storage of crops. 

 They can be obtained as follows. Send a check or money 

 order for $35 (U.S. or Canada, $45 for other countries) 

 made payable to "WSHA-CA Conference", to: 



Proceedings 



WSHA-CA Conference 



1100 N. Western Avenue 



Wenatchee, WA 98801 



16 



Fruit Notes, Summer, 1990 



