#Cosmic crisp apple how to

“We’re just doing what the researchers are telling us to do,” he said. Plath credits his managers carefully following PVM’s harvest guidelines. In fact, during an April run, the company had trouble finding greasy apples to show Good Fruit Grower. of Yakima has not struggled with greasiness, said Dan Plath, co-owner. Greasiness concerns are hardly universal. Storage length, 1-MCP treatments and firmness at harvest did not seem to affect the incidence of greasiness, according to the surveys, which represent about 25 percent of the state’s volume. Fruit maturity and attention to detail during waxing were the only patterns to emerge, she said. Torres based her conclusions on packer surveys after the 2020 harvest. Sophomore slump for Cosmic Crisp? Fruit maturity It set better defined color standards, too, and provided visual indicators to help packers make the determination. Extra Fancy, a slight tightening in defect tolerance over Washington Fancy, the previous standard. To advise such decisions, PVM relies on the state’s fruit researchers, such as Torres, and a quality standards committee comprised of shippers.Īlso at the committee’s suggestion this year, PVM has mandated grades of Washington Extra Fancy and U.S. The company has also hired a quality manager to step up enforcement of that threshold this year, Burbery said.Īdjusting standards as the industry learns more about the new apple was always part of the plan, Burbery said.

On the other end of the spectrum, to make sure those early-harvest WA 38s develop enough flavor in storage, PVM is now requiring shippers to let them clear 5.0 on the starch scale before shipping, which had always been the suggested level.

The idea is that starch measurements represent a small sample, so having the threshold at 2.0 or 2.5 may have let some fruit inadvertently hang past the optimum maturity, Burbery said. “The quality standards committee decided to try to lower the harvest threshold just a little bit to keep the greasiness from developing,” said Jill Burbery of PVM. For 2021, the starch target range starts at 1.5, down from 2.0 last year and 2.5 in 2019.

(Courtesy Carolina Torres/Washington State University)Įach year since commercial launch in 2019, Proprietary Variety Management, or PVM, the Yakima company commercializing the Cosmic Crisp, has lowered the early end of its starch scale harvest guidelines, based on input from quality advisers and researchers. Carolina Torres, a postharvest specialist from Washington State University, recommends packers explore alternative waxes - other than carnauba, the industry favorite. This WA 38 apple is mostly shiny with warehouse-applied carnauba wax, but it has a dull spot in the center where its natural grease oozed through. If not, natural grease may seep through.Īlso, as orchards mature, trees will stabilize and reduce the fruit’s greasiness tendencies, she said. Torres also recommends packing line managers pay extra-close attention to the waxing portion of the line, making sure the apple has been cleaned of natural grease and sufficiently covered with the applied wax. “If you harvest a little bit too late, you might have a little bit of greasiness,” she said. Harvesting a tad earlier will help solve that, said Carolina Torres, WSU’s endowed chair for postharvest physiology. The past two years, packers have noticed the apple’s natural wax, usually called grease, oozing through line-applied waxes in some lots.

#Cosmic crisp apple how to

Those are the bits of advice from researchers studying how to avoid greasiness as growers gear up for their third commercial harvest of Washington State University’s proprietary apple, sold as Cosmic Crisp. Pick those WA 38 apples just a little earlier and double-check the waxing station on the packing lines. Proprietary Variety Management’s quality standards committee extended the ideal range from 1.5 to 2.5 to help growers better capture orchard variability while aiming for 2.0, but the research commission still recommends a threshold of 2.0. The Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission maintains their recommendation to target 2.0 on the starch scale developed by the research commission. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)Īfter this story was published in our September 2021 issue, we received the following clarification: In its third commercial year, managers are still fine-tuning harvest timing of the WA 38 variety, marketed as Cosmic Crisp, to avoid greasy fruit on the packing line. This WA 38 cull, right center, has a slightly dull appearance where its natural greasiness did not wash off prior to waxing and labeling, unlike the others around it, at a packing house near Yakima, Washington, in April.