North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["kieran or donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>]

>Larry Schrader is a research professor at the Tree Fruit Research and
Extension Center in Wenatchee.  His invention is called Raynox, because
it knocks the sun's rays.
It's a waxy liquid made from Carnauba wax, a natural ultraviolet B
blocker, found on leaves of Carnauba palm trees in northern Brazil.
Sprayed on apples, it reduces sunburn by an average of 50 percent.
Schrader found that apple cells die when the surface of the fruit
reaches 126 degrees.

I wonder if this stuff could be used on tomatoes and peppers too?  Down
here, purple peppers, and  green and "black" varieties of tomatoes sunburn.
The obvious answer is not to grow them, but still, if a person wanted to
grow them, this product might be handy.  I notice in Seedsavers Exchange
that the people raving over the "black" tomatoes are mostly up north, and
have wondered if the darker color could speed up ripening or change the
metabolism inside the fruit.  Certainly a dark fruit is going to warm up
more than a pale yellow or white tomato.  And this brings us back to apples.
Do dark apples do any different up north from light-skinned ones?  Apples
tend to color up more on the sunny side of the fruit, and the sunny side of
the tree, but why?  Is it to provide protection from the sun?   Is it that
the tree is taking advantage of the solar gain to ripen some fruits before
others?  Or is it not something inside the fruit at all, but the leaves on
the sunny side of the tree that are able to provide more nutrients and
sugars to the nearest fruits?  Just thinking out loud.  Donna