Colour
Colour was assessed using the Pink LadyTM Europe Ctifl colour charts (Centre technique interprofessionnel des fruits et legumes (Ctifl) Pink LadyTM Eurofru colour charts) on the 40 apples sampled from each of the 10 trees. Each apple was given a score for background colour (F1-F7), a score for blush intensity (R1-R8) and a percentage of blush intensity when the blush was over R3.
At the time of strip picking the majority of apples had reached the ideal background colour. 78% of fruit in both the no net DAFWA and black net blocks were between F3 to F4. 68% of white net apples and only 47% of apples in the no net grower treatments were between F3 to F4 (table 4).
Background colour greater than F4 is undesirable for long term storage, as the green background begins to move toward yellow. Between 22% (DAFWA no net) and 53% (no net grower) of fruit were beyond the ideal background storage colour.
|
| F score <3 (%) | F Score 3-4 (%) | F Score >4 (%) |
| Black Net | 0 | 78 | 23 |
| White Net | 0 | 68 | 32 |
| No net DAFWA | 0 | 78 | 22 |
| No net Grower | 0 | 47 | 53 |
| Drip | 0 | 63 | 37 |
F score from Ctifl standards for Pink LadyTM. Optimum for long term storage F 3-4.
While optimum Blush is between R4 and R5 for long term storage, blush greater than R4 is preferred in all fruit. Colour under the black and white net sprinkler irrigated treatments was lower than desired at strip picking with the majority of fruit lower than R4. The fruit on the trees irrigated using drip irrigation had better colour with 72% of fruit above R score 4 (table 5). The no net grower treatment had 81% of fruit at greater than R4.
|
| R score <4 | R Score 4-5 | R Score >5 |
| Black Net | 68 | 25 | 8 |
| White Net | 56 | 35 | 9 |
| No net DAFWA | 47 | 42 | 12 |
| No net Grower | 19 | 43 | 38 |
| Drip | 28 | 53 | 19 |
R score for background colour from Ctifl standards for Pink Lady. Optimum for long term storage R4-5.