North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Terence Bradshaw <tblists@pshift.com>]

Actually that research was looking at ways to treat small quantities of
fruit with 1-MCP, marketed as SmartFresh. It's a gaseous compound that
when released into a sealed quantity of fruit binds to ethylene receptors
and delays maturity past the climacteric.  The fruit need to be
treated at a VERY specific stage of development, and are often further
stored in conventional CA storage.  It's not something a small-scale
backyarder could do, even if you could get your hands on the material.
That said, when used properly, it can do good things for some
fruit.  Some say that this material alone could save the Empire
cultivar in NY state.

Terry B

> Hi Tom,
> There is current usage and ongoing research on pallet-sized CA storage.
> What I mean 
> by this is very similar to what you want to try. A bin (15 bushels?) of
> apples is 
> sealed in some sort of bag and some sort of small CA system is either
> employed, or 
> the atmosphere is injected/sealed in at the beginning. My state research
> station 
> was working with this just a few years ago (2). Maybe calling yours might
> help, or 
> calling mine at Highmoor Farm, Monmouth Maine 207-933-2100. If that is
> the wrong #, 
> sorry, and try a call to the operator. University of New Hampshire or
> Cornell would 
> probably have lowdown as well.
> I think something similar would work,
> Heron Breen
> zone 4, Maine

=================================================================

Terence Bradshaw 

1189 Wheeler Road

Calais, VT 05648        

(802)229-2004

bradshaw@pshift.com

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