Table 4. Results of poststorage taste tests to assess flavor 

 and overall desirability of 32F air-stored Mutsu and Shizuka 

 apples. 



Rating is on a scale of 1 to 5, with l=poor, 2=fair, 

 3=acceptable, 4=very good, 5=outstanding, and, 

 incorporates firmness, flavor, acidity, crispness, and 

 appearance components. 



influenced by nitrogen level, as well as by fruit 

 maturity. 



Storage Information 



Fruit were placed in cold storage immediately 

 following harvest. Half the fruit were removed from 

 storage for evaluation in mid December and the other 

 half were removed a month later (7 weeks later 1998- 

 99). hi addition, some fruit were stored in 

 controlled atmosphere (CA: 38°F, 2.8%02, up 

 to S%CO^) for the 1998-99 season. Those 

 fruit were removed for evaluation on February 

 12, 1999. Results of CA storage will be 

 discussed separately. 



There were three parts to the fruit 

 evaluation. (I) At the time of each removal 

 from storage, half the removed fruit were 

 immediately pressure tested. (2) The pressure 

 tested fruit were kept refrigerated and were 

 taste tested over a few days following removal 

 from the cold storage. (3) The removed fruit 

 which were not pressure tested were kept at 

 room temperature ( 68°F) for a week and then 

 evaluated for storage disorders. 



Table 3 shows the condition of the fruit on 



removal from cold storage. Fruit firmness 

 after storage was greater for Mutsu than for 

 Shizuka, and these differed significantly 

 from year to year. There was a significant 

 drop in firmness from mid-December to 

 mid-January for both varieties. The Mutsu 

 lost more firmness between December and 

 January than did the Shizuka, but still 

 remained the firmer apple in January. If we 

 arbitrarily assign a firmness of 12 pounds at 

 removal from storage to be the lower limit of 

 acceptability, then the Shizuka were 

 dropping below the level of acceptability by 

 mid January. Taste tests, results of which 

 are shown in Table 4, confirm this. 

 Unfortunately no taste tests were done in the 

 2001-02 season in which the fruit were 

 firmest. 



"Desirability" incorporates assessments 

 of firmness, flavor, crispness, atfractive- 

 ness, acidity, juiciness, and astringency. A 

 score of less than 3 is considered less than acceptable. 

 In the December ratings, time of harvest was not a 

 factor, but in the January ratings, the earlier harvests 

 were judged higher for both varieties. Both varieties 

 were in the acceptable range in December (except for 

 Shizuka in 1998), but a month later even the Mutsu 

 were not consistently acceptable. Some of the poor 

 showing for desirability in the January rating of the 

 1998 fruit may be because the mid-January removal 



Fruit Notes, Volume 67, Summer, 2002 



