Ripening and Storabiiity of ‘Marshall McIntosh’ Apples

Abstract

‘Marshall McIntosh,’ along with 6 other strains of ‘McIntosh,’ were planted in a replicated trial in 1979. ‘Marshall McIntosh’ ripened before ‘Rogers McIntosh’ each year from 1984 through 1988. Fruit of the ‘Gatzke’ strain were consistently among the largest, and ‘Marshall’ fruit were consistently among the smallest. Firmness differences at harvest and after storage could be attributed to fruit size. No differences were noted among the strains with respect to the development of scald, bitter pit, senescent breakdown, or decay after refrigerated or controlled atmosphere storage. However, storage of ‘Marshall’ and ‘Rogers McIntosh’ in controlled atmosphere storage with O ₂concentrations of 2.25 and 3% showed that ‘Marshall’ was considerably more sensitive to low O ₂levels than was ‘Rogers McIntosh.’