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With the wet weather over the blossom period this year, the mouldy core internal breakdown syndrome which affects apples with a tendency towards open calyx can be expected to be troublesome.
Fruit affected by this problem generally ripens ahead of other fruit and is starting to show up in Pacific Rose and Fuji now.
In the case of Pacific Rose, affected fruit shows as early development of the typical bright pink colour this variety has. Affected fruit in Fuji shows as premature yellowing of the background colour and greasiness in the skin.
Remember the tolerance for internal disorders in export fruit is low and there is always the potential for inherent vice clawback. Therefore it is important to do what you can to minimize the incidence of this problem in your harvested crop.
Once Royal Gala harvest is finished, there will be a break of about a week before the Braeburn harvest begins. This is a good time to walk through Pacific Rose and Fuji blocks to cull out fruit which are showing symptoms of internal breakdown.
If this fruit is culled out before the rest of the crop comes up in colour, there is a good chance of getting most of it out of the line so that the incidence of this disorder can be kept low in the harvested line.
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