Does anyone present have solutions to prevent soggy core breakdown?
Again this year I am finding myself losing much of my late picked honeycrisp crop in storage. This has been happening for many years now, and a few years ago, I was finally able to put a solid name to the problem, soggy core breakdown.
The issue is undetectable from outside until very advanced. It begins 2-4 weeks after harvest initially showing as a slight internal browning in a zone starting 1/4" below the surface and extending 1/2 way to the core, often just on one side of the apple. The browning deepens and progresses to a spongy tissue collapse that can be felt from outside with a gentle squeeze. At that point the fruit is unusable, although it still looks beautiful from outside. Early in the deterioration, fruit is usable but flavor takes on a vinous or pear like flavor and texture is off.
I know honeycrisp is particularly prone to the problem. I also know that it seems to be worse on the fruit I allow to ripen the most, as well as the larger fruit.
I have also read that exposure to freezing temps prior to harvest can initiate.
So I thinned the tree very little this year in hopes to bring down the fruit size…but honey crisps for me always want to get huge, and 1/2 lb apples were still common on the problem tree, and many pushing a full pound.
I also made sure to get the crop in before any freeze this year. I picked many at an earlier stage of ripening, and those held pretty well, but the flavor is inferior. For us the last week or two on the tree make a huge improvement in homeycrisps…
But I’m still losing a lot of beautiful fruit in storage, which is frustrating. worse still, I am beginning to sell and barter more and more of our crops, and really don’t want to be passing on fruit that is internally degrading.
We have a second tree of honeycrisp as well that bore a full crop for the first time this year. The load on that tree was comprised of more reasonable sized fruit. None of the fruit on that tree seem to be affected .
I have seen entire articles on storing Honeycrisp in GoodFruit Grower. The only thing I can tell you is that they store them at a warmer temp than other apples- I think at about 38 degrees F.
Root pruning might be an option for producing smaller and firmer apples. Mine never store well either and my trees are excessively vigorous for the variety. Calcium sprays may help
Do your bartering before November.
Just found this. Guess my memory is still semi-functional, although I edited the bit about calcium sprays after reading the below. I almost had typed it before but lost my courage and searched up this article.
Thanks for the link Alan. I believe I came across it last year, as I too was remembering some reference to calcium sprays, which I know help with bitter pit and it seems are expected to help with soggy core. That may be my next approach…
Root pruning is a interesting sugestion. For me apple size is clearly linked to the issue. When is that procedure typically done?
It may be that I just need to give up on storing honeycrisp (at least from this tree) and just make sure they are used up quickly.
The one other correlation I have seen (and this could be unrelated) is that those apples which show some mild internal red pigmentation/swirls (maybe 5%of crop) are never effected…but these also tend to be med-small apples.
Any idea what triggers pigment inclusion?
To my knowledge I’ve not experienced this issue and still have Honeycrisp in storage from Sept. 12.
My wife though DID describe to me a condition similar to what you are describing in just 4 apples she found, all were among the larger apples. For reasons unknown to me, this was the first year that I never had any bitter pit. All my apples, save for the few dozen I still have were never cold stored.
Rob, could those apples of yours have had water core before they were placed in storage? Maybe that’s what you are saying, but I’m understanding this to be something different, is that right?
ACN scored HC highly for storage. I don’t remember the exact (I think 6 or 7) rating and they have changed their website and no longer show that info. I personally haven’t been successful at storing any apple for longer than a few months. Mine have never been any better than the day they were picked.
Rob, I’ve also never seen any red swirling inside HC, I’ve seen it a lot in other varieties, but never in HC. Not in any that I grow, or in any that I’ve purchased. I too would be very interested in hearing what causes this pigment inclusion. When I get some more time I’m going to see if I can find anything. I posted a study a long while back that studied red expression in flesh, bark, and stems in apples and it was drawn from one specific allele in a strain of crab if my memory is correct (and it may not be).
Root pruning is best done when trees are in bloom. Commercial growers just pull a blade with a tractor along the tree rows and it is always a bit of a crap shoot in how much root to sever, but if trees are excessively vigorous from having deep, rich soil it may be about the only thing that gets them under control in the humid region.
You can also try scoring the trunk at bloom.
Honeycrisp is not the worlds easiest apple- at least not on free standing rootstocks. I’m eating a perfect Goldrush as I write this. So much better behaved!
I bought a bag of Paula apples at Wally World a few weeks ago that had a condition exactly as u describe. They looked good from the outside but if you sliced into them they had brown soft spots deep inside and all of the flesh was extremely mealy. If you pressed them lightly with your thumb they felt firm but if you put a little more pressure on them they would just mush up under your thumb . I threw the whole bag out in the compost pile
I’ve been tempted to try it, but I don’t think I would get goldrush to ripen up here…or at least it would be an uncommon year to make it from what I read.
The honeycrisp are not my favorite, but I do enjoy them alot, and they are in demand among our barter community…lots of families with kids. They can be a pain, some years we get lots of rots on the tree. But most years they do quite well, even with my organic spray regime…except for this damn soggy core breakdown. The rest hold very well at cellar temps.
The problem tree is one of the few I don’t know the rootostock on. Something freestanding and semi-dwarf. It does not show excessive vegetative vigor…far from it…and really the soil it is in is pretty poor so root pruning may not be an effective plan for me. It will be interesting to see if the other tree which is on seedling starts to develop the huge fruit the problem tree has in the coming years.
Appleseed, no this isn’t water core, completely different issue. Fruit begins as normal when pick.
The red swirling I have seen on the honeycrisp is extremely mild. Mostly near the calyx end.
Are these just apples that had watercore and now have rotted?
Maybe everyone else already knows this, but is this what we are defining as “soggy core breakdown” here?
I don’t believe I have ever seen water core in honeycrisp either
Appleseed, we are not defining anything here it is already a defined issue. Soggy core breakdown is a physiological storage disorder. Has nothing to do with water core
Edit: appears it is usually called “soggy breakdown” I am not sure if I read or inserted the word core on my own…
Most of what I read talks about it as a chilling disorder, but I get it in apples from both cellar and fridge storage.
OK…I see. I followed your link, and judging by the photo, I’ve never encountered this issue at all with HC. I don’t however chill any of my apples until long after harvest. I don’t have another fridge for doing so. Gonna have to get on though. When I do I’ll be sure to wait a bit and then just keep the temp in the 36-40 range as they prescribed.
The image in my link is a pretty extreme example I believe…far advanced. Mine show as a lighter more diffuse browning (that does progress) more akin to light bruising but starting 1/4" below skin.
It’s certainly possible that the problem I am having is something else. This just seems to have the most “fit” to what I observe…except that chilling is not part of my equation.
I can see how this is an important issue where you are. There just aren’t very many really delicious apples that can be grown in Z4. I remember going to a NAFEX meeting in NH a while back and visiting commercial orchards where the owners said that most of their customers wanted nothing but Honeycrisp.
One pick your own practically had to station guards by the Honeycrip rows to stop them from being picked too early by customers- which would have been fine except that the earlier apples would have gone to waste.
It is funny how folks that never paid attention to apples before get addicted to Honeycrisp and then don’t even care if they are sub-standard. Apples that I consider bland are beloved by people who get food from food banks where I take them. Often inferior Honeycrisp are preferred over what I consider far superior apples.
Wow, huge images. First attempt by a tech illiterate, hope doesn’t make problems for folks
First is an example of my problem. Second a honeycrisp with a bit of internal red
I just had to compost 3-4 bushels of fruit like the first image. Frustrating to spend so much time on them all summer (foolish organic spray guy;)), then toss.
I disagree Allan, I think there are a good number of delicious apples we can grow…admittedly fewer than some places. But I think our climate makes some of those we grow better than same apple warmer location…maybe I’m just rationalizing.
My problem is like yours in that most folks don’t want what I consider to be the better apples. Like King of pippins or Black oxford seems like too much acid and flavor all packed together just turn them off. They mostly want crunchy and refreshing, but that’s another topic
I should have worded it “popular” apples. I was speaking about good for a commercial grower and remembering what a huge game changer Honeycrisp was for the growers in places like NH. Speaking to the growers themselves this hit me as an epiphany. No wonder in the old days some breeders like Luther Burbank were treated almost like saints.
