RIPENING, STORAGE, AND HANDLING OF APPLES 



57 



was picked. Apparently, so long as the fruit remains attached 

 to the tree it is deriving material from it which tends to check 

 the ripening processes which set in following picking. 



The fact that apples ripen faster if picked and held in the orchard 

 than if remaining on the tree is of much importance in relation to 

 the time of picking apples for common-storage holding. Since the 

 temperatures in common storages generally approximate the mean 

 of those prevailing outdoors, it follows that fruit so held softens 

 much more rapidly than similar fruit remaining on the tree. As 

 was pointed out in Part II, however, late-picked apples soften some- 

 what faster when held at high temperatures than early-picked fruit 

 from the same trees. Consequently, it was necessary to run actual 

 common-storage holding tests to determine whether late-picked 

 fruit, which would be stored under cooler conditions and would have 

 a shorter exposure to high temperatures, would be in firmer condi- 

 tion throughout the storage 



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season than would early- 

 picked fruit from the same 

 orchard. These tests were 

 carried on at Hall, N. Y., 

 during the season of 1924r-25. 

 Early, medium, and late 

 season pickings were made 

 on several varieties, and 

 the firmness of the fruit 

 was tested both at picking 

 time and at intervals during 

 the storage season. In Fig- 

 ure 30 are shown data for 

 two varieties of apples 

 picked at different times 

 and held in basement com- 

 mon storage in western 

 New York. 



It is apparent that the 

 late-picked Baldwin and 

 Stark apples here tested 



gave much more satisfactory results in common storage than did 

 early-picked fruit. The early-picked fruit was softer through- 

 out the storage season than that picked late in the season. This re- 

 sult apparently was due to the fact that the late-picked fruit had a 

 much shorter exposure to high temperatures than the early-picked 

 lots. The average temperatures prevailing in the storage room 

 during each 10-day period of the fall season are recorded in Fig- 

 ure 30. 



Similar results have been obtained with other good common- 

 storage varieties in New York. Tompkins King, a poorer keeping 

 variety, did not give appreciably better results from late picking 

 than from early picking. Apparently, for the better common- 

 storage varieties, the later it is possible to pick them the better the 

 results that may be expected. The somewhat faster softening of the 

 late-picked fruit when held at high temperatures is more than off- 

 set by the lower temperatures prevailing in the common-storage 



Fig. 29. — Rate of softening of apples in New- 

 York, Virginia, and Washington while attached 

 to the tree compared with rate of softening of 

 fruit picked and held under the tree 



