Location: Physiology and Pathology of Tree Fruits Research
Project Number: 2094-43000-007-016-T
Project Type: Trust Fund Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Mar 15, 2016
End Date: Apr 30, 2019
Objective:
1) Identify optimum controlled atmosphere (CA) storage conditions during ‘Honeycrisp’ conditioning.
2) Determine impacts of CA established during temperature conditioning on fruit quality and disorder development of ‘Gala’, ‘Golden Delicious’, and ‘Granny Smith’ apples.
3) Compare how 1-MCP and rapid CA establishment during temperature conditioning impact disorders and fruit quality.
Approach:
The four apple cultivars will be obtained from commercial orchards (2 each/cultivar) and maturity assessed
on the day of harvest. Some fruit will be treated with the ethylene action inhibitor 1-MCP overnight on the
day of receipt. The following day, fruit will be placed into controlled atmosphere storage chambers or held in air at
1 or 10 oC for 7 days, then temperature will be reduced to 1 (‘Gala’, ‘Golden Delicious’, ‘Granny Smith’) or 3oC
(‘Honeycrisp’). Fruit will be removed from storage after 3 and 6 months (‘Gala’) or 4 and 8 months (‘Golden
Delicious’, ‘Granny Smith’, ‘Honeycrisp’), assessed for external disorders, then held 7 days at 20 oC. After 7
days, fruit quality and disorders will be assessed.
