BREEDING APPLES FOR LONG STORAGE

There is considerable potential for extending the marketing season of high quality apples through careful breeding and selection.
Stringent selection at the earliest cropping stage (4 or 5 years from germination) can effectively identify seedlings with good storage potential.

Naturally late-maturing apple varieties are not always suited to long-term storage under modern conditions, nor do they necessarily provide all the desired flavour, texture and other quality attributes required in a commercial apple today.
Apples are normally stored in conditions of high humidity which makes them more prone to low temperature breakdown and superficial scald.
Breeding and selection procedures must take full account of these conditions.
Other disorders that must be considered, include bitter pit, senescent breakdown, and rots caused by diseases such as Gloeosporium and Phytophthora, many of which are controlled by post-harvest dips.
However, concern over agrochemical residues in fresh food gives full justification for the production of new varieties that can be stored for long periods without such dips.

Varietal and progeny surveys illustrate the importance of extending the post-harvest component of an apple breeding programme at an early stage.

Fruit Breeding

F.H. Alston

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1988.224.12