12 



BULLETIN 1406, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



specified ranged between 18.2 and 21.2 pounds at picking time. Wine- 

 sap ranged between 19.5 and 23.4 pounds ; Ben Davis, between 18 and 

 23.1 pounds; Delicious, between 16.3 and 19.4 pounds; Jonathan, be- 

 tween 15.4 and 18 pounds ; and Grimes Golden, between 19 and 23.3 

 pounds. It is at once apparent that the districts having the longer 

 growing season, particularly Wenatchee, Wash., and Rosslyn, Va., 

 have on the average distinctly softer fruit at picking time than those 

 with shorter growing seasons. With the later ripening varieties, such 

 as Winesap and Ben Davis, this may be associated with the fact that 

 the fruit is really not fully matured when cold weather comes on in 

 the northern sections. 



PRESSURE TEST AS A MEASURE OF FRUIT MATURITY 



From the data presented in Table 2 it is apparent that the pres- 

 sure test taken alone is not a satisfactory index of picking maturity 

 in apples. Under certain conditions, which have not been deter- 



S3 



36 

 3V 

 32 

 30 

 \2S 



I" 



\ 

 \/<3 



/e 

 /<? 











































300 











































260 

 2*0 





SG 



*7£ 



q 



'///A 



'<?t 



w , 



V/£ 



zs 



f£ 









/A 



f& 



-/!& 



c/A 



'S/. 



Zf 











\ 



■yr 









































■ri? 



^ 





































i 



1 



k 



' 



a. 









































k 



r. 























ip— 



IP- 







/46-X 

 /20<^ 



/00 



/ 



/ k 









\ 



A 



<N 



> 







# 









A 













--**& 



■^ 



^ 



v. 



-■ o 















M 



S 





















N 



\ 













<f. 



'& 



w 

























\ 



s 















<<? 



































r^ 



'V'O 



w 













60 

 20 



o 











































/o 

 & 























































































' 2 



' s 



' /c 



7 Jt 



? s 



9 /C 



7 A 



ex. 



9 3 



9 / 



// 



' 2, 



' 3 



' yt 



7 2L 



9 3 



<? /c 



0C 



3 



9 J> 



AC* 



r 



Fig. 6. — Change in firmness of flesh and size of Ben Davis apples, 1923 



mined, there appears to be little softening during the month pre- 

 ceding the optimum picking date for the fruit. The condition of 

 firmness of the fruit at picking time, however, is to a limited 

 extent an indication of the length of the period that the fruit will 

 remain firm in storage. The rate of softening following picking is 

 discussed in detail in the second part of this report. The pressure 

 test at picking time gives a measure of the actual condition of firm- 

 ness of the fruit at the time of its removal from the tree and is an 

 indication of the length of time the fruit will remain firm under 

 different storage conditions. 



With many varieties, particularly in the sections having a long 

 growing season, it is important to pick the fruit before it becomes 

 too mature on the tree, in order to avoid excessive softening and 

 internal breakdown in storage. This is particularly true of Jona- 

 than in the Pacific Northwest and to a lesser extent^>f Grimes 

 Golden, Stay man Winesap, Delicious, etc., in the Pacific North- 



