North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Bruce Hansen" <brucedhansen@sbcglobal.net>]

Yes, it is called chemical thinning. Sevin will do. It does not make the apples bigger but thins the crop so the remaining apples grow larger.

 

Bruce 

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Deb Schneider
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2004 3:13 PM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] apple question

Our local (chain) grocery store has started carrying "different" varieties of apples (at least other than Red and Golden Delicious!)  I had a chance to get some Honeycrisp (which were wonderful).  Also Cameo and Pink Lady.  The Pink Lady was especially good...sweet, but with a much more complex flavor than most grocery store apples...slightly cidery and very crisp and juicy.

My question is some of these apples are enormous!  Braeburn, Gala and Fuji apples that are nearly the size of grapefruits.  It's kind of like what happened with grapes awhile ago...suddenly they all were supersized.  Is there some chemical growers are spraying to get these giant apples?  Not sure about the Braeburn, but Gala and Fujis I've had in the past have been "normal" sized.

deb