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Project Leader(s): David A. Rosenberger,
Cornell’s Hudson Valley Laboratory, Highland, NY
Cooperator(s): (none)
Type of grant: Cultural methods; sanitation;
physical controls
Project location(s): Work was performed
at the Hudson Valley Laboratory in Highland, NY, but results have applications
nationally for apple producers and storage operators.
Abstract: New York State produces approximately
26 million bushels of apples each year. Apples harvested in autumn are held
in low-oxygen storage for up to 10 months to allow orderly marketing of the
crop and to provide consumers with a year-round supply of high-quality fruit.
However, several fungal pathogens can cause apples to decay during storage and
shipping. In a survey during winter/spring of 2000 and 2001, decayed Empire
apples were evident in bagged apple displays in nearly 40% of retail stores
surveyed. Fungal spores can be carried from season to season on the large bins
that are used to hold fruit during storage. Sanitizing bins after they are emptied
might break the disease cycle, thereby reducing both losses in apple storages
and the incidence of decays in bagged apples at the retail level. Commercial
sanitizers (sodium hypochlorite and quaternary ammonia compounds) were compared
for effectiveness using small, uniformly-contaminated pieces of wood and plastic
bin materials. None of the sanitizers were effective for killing spores of Penicillium
expansum that were grown on wooden blocks soaked in apple juice. Results
of this work suggest that steam cleaning may be necessary to remove inoculum
from apple bins.
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