Tree cages were used to modify temperature around ‘Starking Delicious’ apple (Malus domestica Borkh.) trees and to establish 4 bloom dates: April 2, 15 and May 7, 22. Determination of soluble solids, acid, firmness and chlorophyll indicated that the time from bloom to maturity was longer for fruit from earlier than normal bloom. Fruit from delayed bloom accumulated less soluble solids than that from normal or earlier bloom dates. Ultimate fruit size decreased with each successive bloom. Fruit from the 2 early bloom dates apparently was harvested before the preclimacteric minimum. Fruit from delayed bloom was harvested after initiation of the climacteric. Loss of fruit firmness in storage increased with successive harvests. Storage scald and green fruit color were associated with warm night temperatures just before harvest rather than with length of growing season.
Numbers of fruits per tree were determined in a solid block of Granny Smith apple trees into which shoots of the pollen donor Abas had been placed at flowering time. Fruit numbers declined rapidly from 46 per tree nearest the donor to a background level of 0-2 fruits 12 m distant. This distance was taken as the limit of cross-pollination. Apart from a significant spread of setting with the prevailing wind, fruit numbers were related to distance from the pollen donor. This relationship was described by an equation involving the limited work-range of an individual bee (12m), the dilution of donor pollen with increasing distance from the source (0.67m-1) and a scaling factor determining the general level of setting. It was assumed that donor pollen density was so low that multiple pollination could be ignored. Seed counts per fruit averaged 1.4 on windfalls, 2.3 on a random sample of picked fruit, and 5.2 on trees nearest the pollen donors. Fruits from heavily cropping orchards nearby with established pollen donors averaged between four and six seeds per fruit.
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