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Maturity and Ripening of ‘Ambrosia’ Apples

Author: Jennifer DeEll - Fresh Market Quality Program Lead/OMAFRA; Behrouz Ehsani - Research Assistant/OMAFRA; Peter Toivonen, AAFC, Summerland, BC.
Creation Date: 15 June 2007
Last Reviewed: 15 June 2007

As part of a larger project, ‘Ambrosia’ apple maturity was monitored during the 2006 commercial harvest. Fruit maturity was evaluated on 10-apple samples twice a week from two commercial orchards in the Simcoe area of Ontario. 

It appears that ‘Ambrosia’ is a low producer of ethylene, in that there was little change in internal ethylene concentration (continually <1 ppm) from Sept. 26th to Oct. 6th while the starch index increased by three levels. This makes ‘Ambrosia’ an ideal candidate for SmartFresh (1-MCP) treatment, because the effectiveness of 1-MCP is optimal when apples are pre-climacteric and have little ethylene present. 

Soluble solids content also increased (1.2-1.8%) in ‘Ambrosia’ during this time period. Conversely, there was relatively little loss of firmness (varying, <1 lb) while fruit matured on the tree. 

It is important to note that the trends of apple maturity can vary enormously year-to-year and that this work represents only the maturity development of ‘Ambrosia’ during one season, 2006. Therefore, these evaluations need to be continued for additional growing seasons before confident conclusions can be made.

‘Ambrosia’ maturity from two orchards near Simcoe, Ontario – 20061

Orchard

Date

Fruit diameter
(mm)

Blush (%)

Firmness (lb)

Soluble
solids
(%)

Starch
(1-8)2

Internal ethylene
(ppm)

1

 

 

Sept. 22

70

68.0

19.2

11.4

3.8

0.2

Sept. 25

72

61.0

19.1

11.2

3.5

0.1

Sept. 29

73

75.0

17.7

11.3

5.7

0.1

Oct. 2

71

74.0

18.0

12.3

4.1

0.0

Oct. 6

72

73.0

18.3

12.6

5.3

0.1

2

 

 

Sept. 22

73

62.5

17.2

12.1

3.6

0.3

Sept. 25

75

58.0

17.8

12.6

3.7

0.2

Sept. 29

76

66.5

17.4

13.2

6.3

0.9

Oct. 2

77

63.0

17.8

12.9

5.2

0.1

Oct. 6

75

63.5

17.1

13.9

5.9

0.2

1 Values are the average of 10 apples.
2 Cornell generic starch chart, 1-8 scale.

 

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