Storage quality of ‘Cox's Orange Pippin’ apples grown on a range of rootstocks

Abstract

This study involved storing samples of ‘Cox's Orange Pippin’ from the 1974 and 1975 crops from each of 2 rootstock trials. After 12 weeks cool storage, the samples were examined for bitter pit and internal breakdown. In the high-pit year 1974, ‘Cox's Orange’ on ‘M.16’ and ‘MM.115’ had significantly more pit and breakdown than when grown on ‘MM.106’, ‘MM.112’ and ‘MM.114’, with fruit from ‘MM.104’ in between the 2 groups. However, in the low-pit year 1975 there were no differences. In the second trial in 1974, ‘Cox's Orange’ on ‘M.16’ had significantly more pit and breakdown than when on ‘Northern Spy’, ‘MM.109’ and ‘M.7’. In the following year there were no differences in the incidence of pit, but fruit from ‘M.7’ and ‘M.2’ had more breakdown than from other rootstocks in this trial.