The effect of hail nets and ethephon on color development of 'Redchief Delicious' apple fruit in the highlands of Chihuahua, Mexico

Abstract

Fruit color in 'Redchief Delicious' apples under hail nets and uncovered trees was measured by luminosity (L*) and hue (oh) values from July to September, 1999 including harvest time in all treatments. Treatments consisted of trees under black and white nets and controls without nets during the growing season, trees in each treatment were foliar sprayed or not with ethephon before harvest. Final fruit color on trees without hail nets had a mean L* value of 44.1 and oh value of 38.8. Trees under black hail nets yielded a mean L* value of 48.4 with an oh value of 53.0, while for white hail nets values were: L*; 44.8 and oh; 41.0 There were no statistical differences between cardinal orientation. Fruit from ethephon sprayed trees did not show statistical differences between L* and oh values within sampling dates at harvest. There was a reduction of both, incident solar light and final fruit color due to either black or white hail nets over the trees.