Maximize Fruit Size

Maximize Fruit Size! I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

If you hear the phrase “supersize it” you most likely think fast food…right? Peter Hirst from Purdue University thinks about fruit when he hears it.

HIRST: We’ve been working the last few years on fruit size and of course growers are very well aware of the importance of fruit size. And if we increase fruit size of an apple by about 20%, if we increase the size of every apple in your orchard by 20% you’ve just doubled your money.

Hirst says that is a very strong incentive for growers to work on fruit size. Fruit size begins with the flower and continues through fruiting. But he breaks it down a lot further.

HIRST: Really there’s three components to the size of an apple. There’s the number of cells, there’s the size of those cells and there’s the space between cells because they’re not packed together like bricks, they have little spaces between them.

Selling apples by weight according to Hirst means that it’s more important to look at cell number and size…not the space in between.

HIRST: And so we’re really interested in these two and not so interested in cellular space. This may have more to do with the volume of a fruit but because we sell it by weight we’re really interested in cell number and cell size.

Hirst spoke at the annual Hort Convention in Wenatchee. More tomorrow.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.