Relative humidity and its interaction with the wounds on decay incidence and ripening of 'Galaxy' apples during cold storage

Abstract

The objectives of the present work were control the decay incidence and ripening of wounded fruits by the relative humidity management during the storage. Fruits were allocated in mini experimental chambers at the temperature of 1°C during 5 months. Was verified a significant interaction on ethylene production after 2 and 6 days of shelf life at 20°C. On the evaluation carried out after 6 days, wounded fruits stored under LRH showed lower ethylene production. There was higher mass loss in wounded fruits stored in HRH. Wounded fruits showed high decay incidence. The LRH is not an efficient method to control decay incidence in wounded fruits, but maintain higher flesh firmness, lower ethylene production and respiration rate.

Keywords

• malus domestica
• decay severity
• physiological disorders
• mass loss
• ethylene.