Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/442490
www.goodfruit.com Good Fruit Grower JANUARY 15, 2015 13 indicators, such as soluble solids concentration and starch conversion index. But when she expanded the trial in 2014 to several Honeycrisp orchards, she couldn't find the same correlations. "The DA meter did track maturity in the orchard over time and could be used to separate lots for storage," Hanrahan said, adding that the DA meter tended to correlate with background color rather than percentage of red color. "The lack of correlations isn't surprising, when you consider that we're working with Honeycrisp, a variety that doesn't conform to behavior of other varieties and seems to do things for no rhyme or reason," she said. Nonetheless, Hanrahan is intrigued with the DA meter's nondestructive nature and ease of use, and she is continu- ing evaluations to learn if there is utility in predicting cold sensitivity and storability of Honeycrisp at harvest. Dry matter Dry matter concentration of apples is receiving world- wide attention as another way to measure quality and predict storage potential. New Zealand's John Palmer, Stuart Tustin, Roger Harker, and others recently pub- lished the study "Fruit Dry Matter Concentration: A New Quality Metric for Apples." Chris Willett of ENZA Fruit Products has been using dry matter for several seasons to assess fruit quality of ENZA varieties. Dry matter is the solid substance of an apple when all water is removed and mainly consists of soluble carbohy- drates, vitamins, and minerals. Dry matter content can be determined easily by dehydrating apple slices, a process that requires a dehydrator and is minimal in cost, but it takes 24 to 48 hours. Because of the slow and destruc- tive nature of using a dehydrator, apple researchers are exploring near-infrared technology (NIR) to measure dry matter concentration and other fruit quality attributes from tree through storage. "High dry matter concentration is the goal in apples," said Willett. In his work with ENZA apples, he's found that the correlation between dry matter concentration and soluble solids increases during storage periods. High-density training systems that get more light interception into the canopy help increase dry matter in fruit, but there is variability between varieties and within orchards due to canopy structure, horticultural practices, and cultivar-specific characteristics. "It's not an absolute value of dry matter that we should focus on but the value within a variety," he said. For example, Scifresh (Jazz) has an average dry matter con- centration of 15.4 percent compared to 15.9 percent for Sciros (Pacific Rose) and 16.7 percent for Scilate (Envy). He has not sampled Honeycrisp. The goal is to produce fruit in the upper range for that particular variety, which for some of the varieties he's tested is around 15 percent. As NIR technology is adapted to the fruit industry, he believes growers and packers in the future will use hand- held devices and sorting technology to assess dry matter and other quality attributes in the orchard and through the packing process as a way to predict and assess quality and storage potential. He also sees potential to match high-flavor fruit with high-end markets. "However, proper harvest timing will still be critical." • "Honeycrisp doesn't conform to behavior of other varieties and seems to do things for no rhyme or reason." —Ines Hanrahan are planted with the most popular seedling, semi-dwarf and dwarf varieties: Our Fields Prunus avium/P. mahaleb M.106/M.7/M.26/B.118 Prunus EMLA Colt OHxF Series Geneva® Series M.9 Clones We also grow a great selection of rootstock varieties for apple, peach, pear and plum including: Like our rootstock, our service will grow on you. All fruit tree rootstock is Oregon certified virus-free. MALUS ANTONOVKA MALUS DOMESTICA PRUNUS PERSICA 'LOVELL PRUNUS CERACIFERA PRUNUS MARIANA PRUNAS MYROBALAN PYRUS CALLERYANA PYRUS COMMUNIS PYRUS USSERIENSIS APPLE PEACH PLUM PEAR PROVINCE QUINCE CANBY, OREGON WWW.WILLAMETTENURS ERIES.COM ( 503 ) 263-6405 TOLL FREE: ( 800 ) 825-2108 Ensure Smart ™ Ozone THE OZONE SYSTEM SPECIFICALLY ENGINEERED FOR APPLE AND PEAR STORAGE Exclusive Ensure Smart™ Washington State Distributor: IER Inland Ozone 888-331-3348 Organic-approved decay control in CA and regular cold storage Precisely regulates, monitors, and controls ozone levels in multiple cold storage rooms via centralized ozone system Remote access of real-time and historical data Increases pack out and improves food safety Ozone Applied (9.5 months) No Ozone Applied (9.5 months) Guardian Ensure Smart™ Ozone www.guardianmfg.com