EFFECTS OF HARVEST DATE ON THE CONDITION AFTER STORAGE OF MCINTOSH APPLES TREATED WITH ETHEPHON AND FENOPROP

Trees of McIntosh apples were sprayed with a combination of 300 ppm ethephon plus 6 ppm fenoprop before harvest. Fruits were harvested from treated and untreated trees at intervals from 4 through 15 days after spraying and were promptly stored at 0 C until 4 Feb. The criteria of quality, firmness, % malic acid and incidence of core browning indicated that the ethephon plus fenoprop treatment resulted in more red color with less loss of storage life than did harvest of untreated fruit delayed until normal mid-harvest time for this cultivar. Clonal strains responded differently to treatment in firmness and in the incidence of core browning.