Occurrence of physiological browning disorders in stored ‘Braeburn’ apples as influenced by orchard and weather conditions

Physiological storage disorders continue to cause sizable economic losses in a range of commercially important pomefruit cultivars. Given similar regimes, the incidence and severity browning apple cultivar ‘Braeburn’ can vary different years way that be explained by interaction preharvest seasonal orchard factors. Over three-year period (2016–2019) at Kompetenzzentrum Obstbau Bodensee (KOB) Southwest Germany treatments were conducted for: air temperature during cell division for three weeks post petalfall or four preharvest, crop load. Following controlled atmosphere (CA) storage, disorder internal cavity formation varied markedly over growing seasons. Crop load strongly influenced expression all years. Differences temperatures (? +/- 2 °C compared ambient) showed little effect on incidence. Warm night (>10 °C) prior harvest reduce apples CA shelf-life.