Cuticle provides a barrier for secretory of volatile lipophilic metabolites like α-farnesene in fruit. The accumulation and oxidation of α-farnesene or the propagation of its oxidation products can be affected by the thickness, the constituents, and the structure of this cuticle. To measure the development changes of cuticle components, `Delicious' trees were treated separately with 250 ppm aminoethoxyvinylglycine (AVG) on 12 Sept. and 200 ppm ethephon on 19 Sept. Fruit were harvested on 28 Sept. and stored at about 20C for 6 weeks. Total wax in both treatment and control fruit at harvest was around 2.8 mg/f.fr.wt. It increased rapidly after 2 weeks and reached 8.4 mg/g fr.wt. in control fruit after 6 weeks, which paralleled increasing internal ethylene and accumulation of α-farnesene. Ethylene synthesis, α-farnesene, and total wax accumulation were enhanced by ethephon treatment and completely suppressed by AVG treatment during the whole period of storage. The cutin contents in fruit from treated fruit and the control were similar at harvest, and they remained constant during storage.