QUALITY OF PINK LADY ® BRAND APPLE
Apple (Malus domestica Borkh, ‘Pink Lady ® brand’) fruit were harvested from one California orchard in 2002, 2003 and 2004 at two or three different maturity stages each year. Fruit were evaluated for background color, firmness, fruit size, percentage of blush, starch index (CTIFL chart), soluble solids, titratable acidity and carbon dioxide (CO2) production and immediately stored at 33 oF in air or in controlled atmosphere (CA). In 2003, additional treatments included 1 ppm of SmartFresh ® (1-MCP) or 2200 ppm of diphenylamine (DPA). Firmness, CO2 production, external condition and internal browning were determined after storage in CA or air and 5 days at 68 oF. Fruit stored in CA conserved higher firmness and produced less CO2. Internal browning was not seen in fruit stored in air, but appeared in fruit after two months storage in CA. The incidence did not increase after longer storage times. SmartFresh ® worked as well as CA in conserving the quality of the fruit. It did not affect the incidence of internal browning, but DPA inhibited internal browning completely. When comparing similar storage atmospheres for all three seasons, the incidence of internal browning was significantly different, being much higher in 2002 and 2004. A mineral analysis of the apple flesh showed differences among the seasons. Concentrations of calcium (Ca), boron (B) and magnesium (Mg) were significantly higher in 2003, corresponding with a lower incidence of internal browning.
The mineral composition of apples. Calcium concentration and bitter pit in relation to mean mass per apple
Data for bulked samples of ungraded Cox's Orange Pippin fruit obtained from many sources over a period of 18 years show that there is a general inverse relationship between mean mass per apple and mean calcium concentration. Part of the scatter around the regression curve was accounted for by differences between years but there were larger differences between samples of the same size picked from different orchards in the same year. Even with the most favourable conditions the observed samples with mean mass per apple greater than 150 g had less than 5 mg Ca/100 g when no calcium sprays were applied and in general most samples with mean masses per apple greater than 110g were likely to have concentrations of calcium below this and hence were liable to develop bitter pit. Fruit calcium level was a more important determinant of liability to bitter pit than was mean mass per apple. 
 
 
 
Although there was some evidence of the same relationship between calcium concentration and mass when apples from the same tree were analysed individually other factors often negated it. Two- to three-fold differences in calcium concentration were observed in individual apples from the same tree.
An Actor Prepares
Stanislavski's simple exercises fire the imagination, and help readers not only discover their own conception of reality but how to reproduce it as well.