FLESH TEXTURE OF RAW APPLES 



Delicious 



N,-> 9 o 



32° F 



Rome Beauty 



Golden Delicious 



-u- 



Jonathan 



6 

 5 

 4 

 3 



6 



MONTHS 



1 



Winesap e 





~ 1 



«_ i— — ^W^_ 40° F 



^^ 



32° F 



1 

 . i _ 1 i i 



.1 ^ 



U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



'TESTED IN FIRST YEAR ONLY 



NEG. 5585-58(10) AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE 



Figure 10. — Flesh texture of raw mature -apples before and after storage at 32 c 

 and 40° F., mean scores for 2 crop years combined. 



texture at storage periods of 3, 5, and 7 months were higher when 

 apples were stored at 32° F. rather than at 40°. Delicious apples, 

 stored at 32° for 3 months were nearly as firm as at harvest, whereas 

 Staymans, slightly too firm at harvest, became nearer optimum in 

 texture. These results are in agreement with the report of Magness 

 and associates (24), which states that apples of the Stayman variety 

 when stored at 32° became ideal for eating by January. After 3 

 months' storage at 40°, however, both Delicious and Stayman va- 

 rieties showed considerable increase in mealiness. 



Magness and coworkers (25) and Wright, Rose, and Whiteman (53) 

 reported from measurements of a pressure tester, that the average 

 softening rate of apples stored at 40° F. was slightly more than 

 double that at 32°. Although objective measurements for flesh 

 texture were not made in this study, the judges scored Golden 

 Delicious, Jonathan, Rome Beauty, and Winesap apples more mealy 

 when stored at 40°. After 7 months of storage at 32°, five of the 

 varieties scored near 3.0 for flesh texture and were acceptable, whereas 

 at 40° only one variety had acceptable flesh texture. These results 

 are in agreement with those of Fisher and Smith (13), who found 

 that storage temperature, as well as maturity at harvest, was a factor 

 in the time apples could be satisfactorily stored. 



Scores for flesh texture of immature apples stored at 32° and 

 40° F. show that Delicious apples stored for 7 months at the lower 

 temperature were acceptable, but those stored at 40° were too mealy 

 to be acceptable after 3 months. The other three varieties scored 

 approximately 3.0 or above for 5 months at either storage tempera- 

 ture. Stayman apples had acceptable scores for as long as 7 months 

 when stored at 32° 



41 



