STORAGE OF APPLES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 222, 8 December 1927, Page 18

STORAGE OF APPLES

LOSS THROUGH ROT INVESTIGATIONS MADE Investigations which will eventually be the means of saving the country considerable annual loss are atpresent being conducted by Mr. H. E. Waters, of the Department of Agriculture, assisted by Mr. W. H. Rice, chief orchard instructor in Auckland.

They are being carried out at the request of Hawke’s Bay fruitgrowers, who have become seriously alarmed at the economic loss involved in the “flesh collapse” to which Stunner apples are subject after being kept in cool store.

From Hawke’s Bay 120,000 cases of Sturmer apples are sent to Auckland annually to meet the winter demand, and losses have in recent years assumed serious proportions. The principal trouble Is the collapse of the tissues of the apple, apparent in a brown discoloration a few days after the fruit has been taken from store. Other losses also result from the spread of “rots.” Apples from individual cases are now being cut open and photographs taken of sectional slices. The observations made are being tabulated, and the deductions will be the subject of a report to the Hawke’s Bay growers at a later date.

The experiments so far conducted went to show the fallacy of supposing that a common temperature could be used in the storage of all kinds and varieties of fruit, and that Sturmers could be stored with advantage at a higher temperature than usual with most other varieties of apple. The observations also bore out that large apples were the most easily affected by adverse storage conditions. The most common form of rot which appeared near the stalk, said Mr. Waters, was entirely the result of wrong picking, when the fruit was pulled from the tree instead of being broken off at the stalk.