Pre-harvest ethephon treatment, a possible control of apple scald

Physiology and Control of Superficial Scald of Apples: A Review

“…Sprays of 500 to 1000 mg ethephon/liter applied in July shortly after the June drop, on 'Delicious' apples reduced scald on the fruit during cold storage (24), and lowered scald susceptibility when applied at 500 mg-liter-1 3 weeks before normal harvest (13). Treatment of 'Granny Smith' apples with preharvest sprays of 500 mg ethephon/liter almost eliminated scald during 150 days in cold storage, giving near commercial control of the disorder (56,70). In another study, daminozide treatments re duced scald incidence and severity, either alone or in combination with ethephon.…”

Preharvest Ethephon Sprays Reduce Superficial Scald of ‘Granny Smith’ Apples

“…Since (2-chloroethyl)phosphonic acid (ethephon) accelerates the ripening of fruits to which it is applied (4), we thought that application of ethephon might partly coun teract the effect of early picking and thus inhibit scald development on stored fruit. Treatment with ethephon gave positive re sults in New Zealand (9), and we have tried it in Israel on the scald-susceptible cultivar Granny Smith. The primary objective of this work was to see if accelerating ripening of apples reduced their susceptibility to scald by affecting the oxidation of a-farnesene.…”