An Appeal for Early Harvest 

 of Honeycrisp 



Sarah Weis 



Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Massachusetts 



It has been proposed by Dr. Chris Watkins of 

 Cornell University that soft scald in Honeycrisp may 

 be avoided, or at least substantially reduced, by 

 delaying cold storage. Soft scald has been a serious 

 problem on Honeycrisp grown in some areas of the US, 

 one of which being New York. He found that if 

 har\'ested fruit are kept at room temperature for a 

 period of time (perhaps 1-7 days) before being 

 transferred to cold storage temperatures, development 

 of soft scald can be reduced or eliminated. It has 

 always been recommended that harvested fruit be 

 placed in cold storage as quickly as possible in order to 

 maintain high quality for consumers. If cold storage is 

 delayed in order to avoid soft scald, it is important to 

 consider possible negative effects on other fruit 

 qualities such as firmness and development of 



disorders such as decay (to which Honeycrisp is quite 

 susceptible), senescent breakdown, and internal 

 browning. 



This study looked at the effects of delaying cold 

 storage on these qualities. Honeycrisp fruit were 

 harvested from three orchard blocks at the University 

 of Massachusetts Cold Spring Orchard Research & 

 Education Center in Belchertown. MA on September 

 1 6 and 23, 2002. Fruit were divided into three groups. 

 One group was placed in cold storage at 32F 

 immediately following harvest, one group was kept at 

 room temperature for 1 day prior to cold storage, and 

 the third group was kept at room temperature for 4 days 

 before being placed in 32F air storage. Fruit were 

 removed for observation (for about 10 minutes) after 

 approximately 90 days of cold storage and then 



Fruit Notes, Volume 68, Spring, Summer, & Fall, 2003 



