Acidity and sweetness in apple and pear

Summary Sweetness and acidity in apple and pear inherit independently and can be organoleptically evaluated separately, but less accurately in pear than in apple. For breeding purposes an analysis of fruits for acidity and sweetness with pH indicator paper and a hand refractometer is to be prefered to the organoleptic method.In apple, the acidity-decreasing with time-of the unripe fruit was already strongly indicative of that of the eating-ripe fruit; sugar-increasing with time-not before the fruit was picking ripe. Sugar content in apple and pear, and the pH in pear, appeared to be normally distributed; the pH in apple showed a segregation into an acid and a low-acid group, which occurred in both the unripe and ripe stage. The segregation ratio between these groups was found to be highly variable. On the whole, the mean acidity and sugar content of apple and pear progenies is significantly determined by that of the parents. Most of the observations made did not support the theory that low acidity in apple is determined by one recessive gene. The relationship between the pH of leaf juice and fruit juice in apple may offer a possibility for pre-selection.