1-MCP verlängert die Lagerfähigkeit und vermindert Schalenbräune bei der Apfelsorte ‘Berlepsch’

‘Berlepsch’ as an apple cultivar of large vitamin C contents in excess of 30?mg vitamin C/100?g FM looses marketing share due to its poor storage quality and sensitivity to superficial scald. The objective of the present work was to use 0, 500 or 1000?ppb of 1-MCP (Smartfresh^TM) for 24 hours at 2?°C to overcome these two cultivar-related shortcomings. Slightly overripe apples were stored at 2?°C, 95% relative humidity either in normal air (NA) or in controlled atmosphere (CA) under 2% CO₂ and 1.8% O₂. Each of these six treatments consisted of four replicates of ca. 20?kg apples each. Treatments with 1-MCP did not affect the fruit sugar content. While the storage conditions (NA or CA) did not affect initial fruit respiration, 1-MCP reduced final fruit respiration to ca. 60% and 1-MCP effects on respiration rates in shelf life were more pronounced than in storage. While 1-MCP reduced the initial ethylene formation from 70 to nearly 0?μl/kg/h, this effect was declined with prolonged storage. Similarly, the temperature driven increase in ethylene evolution during shelf life was not affected by 1-MCP treatments. MCP treated fruit lost less weight in storage and shelf life relative to untreated fruits. Doubling the 1-MCP concentration from 500?ppb to 1,000?ppb did not further reduce respiration, ethylene formation, loss of fresh mass or incidence of superficial scald. This corresponds to the dose of 1-MCP commonly used in fruit storage.