Predicting Poststorage Disorders of ‘Cox's Orange Pippin’ and ‘Bramley's Seedling’ Apples by Regression Equations

Equations were developed that could predict the incidence of senescent breakdown, bitter pit, and decay in ‘Cox's Orange Pippin’ apples and senescent breakdown and bitter pit in ‘Bramley's Seedling’ apples. The parameters used to predict the incidences of disorders included fruit Ca, P, and K concentrations; fruit weight; respiration rate; and fruit maturity. Each disorder and each cultivar had a unique prediction equation. Such equations must be established individually for a disorder, cultivar, and, probably, growing region. Given an appropriate data base, this method seems to have broad applicability as a predictive tool for these disorders. However, core flush and low temperature breakdown could not be predicted using the parameters measured in this study.