Skin Color in `Newtown' Apples Treated with Calcium Nitrate, Urea, `Diphenylamine, and a Film Coating

Abstract

`Newtown' apples (Malus domestics Borkh.) treated weekly with urea at 10 g·liter-l or Ca(NO3)2 at 7.5 g·liter-1 for 5 consecutive weeks from late August were greener at harvest and during storage than comparable control fruit. A postharvest dip in Nutri-Save, a polymeric coating, was better for retention of skin greenness than a dip in diphenylamine and both gave greener apples than control (nondipped) fruit. Fruit treated with Ca(NO3)2 displayed lesions that were larger and more numerous than typical bitter pit in the control fruit.