Winter Fruit Storage

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22391, 11 April 1936, Page 10 (Supplement)

Winter Fruit Storage

IV/TOST growers of fruit like to store a certain amount every year, apples particularly being in demand during the winter. The first essential for successful storage is to have sound, healthy fruit. Damaged specimens, or those badlv marked by diseases such as scab, will "not keep, as brown rot soon sets in, and once a specimen is attacked others are quickly infected. It is never wise to store very largo apples as these are liable to develop bitter pit, and other kinds of internal breakdown. It will be seen that the health of the tree has an important bearing if sound fruit, suitable for storing, is to be obtained from it, and the only way to keep the tree healthy is by due attention to spraying and manuring in the proper season. Fruits should be gathered as they are approaching maturity, but before they are dead ripe Fully-ripened fruit does not keep well ; while if it is on the green side it is likely to shrivel. The fruit should be sufficiently mature to part easily from the tree, and while the ground colour is green rather than yellow. Pears require somewhat different treatment from apples, late varieties being the only ones suitable for keeping, and these should be still hard and immature when picked. As a rule the fruit, comes away easily enough when raised with the hand, but it must not be pulled in such a way that the stalks are dragged out.. These two fruits require quite different conditions of storage. In the case of pears, it is a ripening process rather than storage, and thoy are best kept in

Methods witk Apples and Pears

a single layer on shelves, or in narrow trays in a dry place, using them as they ripen. Sometimes the ripening process may be hastened by bringing a few pears into a warmer room. Some people try to keep apples in the same manner as pears, but this method is not suitable. Apples keep best in bulk, in a moist place, with a cool, even temperature. A frostproof shed with an earthen floor makes an excellent store, the earth floor keeping the atmosphere moist. A cool cellar is probably the next best place for storage, but anywhere where the atmosphere is moist, and the temperature even, will serve. Although the methods of storing apples now employed by commercial growers are quite out of the reach of amateur growers it may be of interest to describe some of them. Many commercial growers now have very elaborate cold stores. These are buildings carefully insulated from changes in the outside temperature, and equipped with a cold storage plant by means of which the temperature may be kept down to the required level. A more recent development is the gas store, which needs to be quite airtight. The apples are stored in the carbon dioxide gas given off by the breathing of the fruit itself. By both these methods apples may be kept for a considerable time. The very-late kinds of apples should be the last to be gathered, as they are capable of hanging on the trees indefinitely. Do not delay too long, however, or much loss will be occasioned by autumn gales, which will bruise and damago the fruit with the consequent loss of keeping qualities.