Extending the Honeycrisp Marketing Season in Washington State

High demand and premium pricing has led to rapid increases in Honeycrisp acreage in Washington State. Most fruit is packed by December and sold by January. However, with rapidly increasing product demand, the marketing window for this cultivar needs to be extended. Successful fruit storage is complicated by several problems in storage, namely bitter pit and sensitivity to chilling.  In 2008, we sampled fruit from 3 mature, annually bearing Honeycrisp orchards in Washington State.  Harvest timings were one week prior to anticipated first pick and first pick (best-storing pick). Fruit was held for 1-3 weeks at 50F before being stored at 36F in regular atmosphere (RA), controlled atmosphere (CA: 0.5% CO₂, 1.5% O₂), or dynamic controlled atmosphere (DCA: 0.5% CO₂, 0.7% O₂) for up to 6 months.  Subsamples of fruit were pulled monthly to evaluate storage performance. In general, all fruit kept well until December regardless of storage regimen, harvest maturity, or orchard location. From January on, the expression of bitterpit symptoms and development of greasiness was hastened by RA storage. Soluble solids and titratable acidity did not significantly change over time and none of the lots expressed significant levels of soft scald. Overall we could not distinguish between CA and DCA stored fruit at any point. These results suggest that Honeycrisp apples may be stored for longer periods of time without compromising fruit quality when utilizing specific controlled atmosphere conditions.