This study is aimed at evaluating the effect of unbagging during different periods on the quality of the fruits of apple genotypes. The study was carried out in an organic apple orchard, at Epagri/Caçador Experimental Station, SC, during the 2005/06 season, with cv. ‘Fuji Suprema’ and ‘Royal Gala’ and the selections M-11/00, M-13/00 and MR-11/90. The experiment was conducted under completely randomized block design with five repetitions, and each plant constituted a repetition. All the fruits of each repetition were bagged. The treatments were composed by three different periods of unbagging (15 and seven days before harvest and at harvest); two different bag materials (paraffinated butter white paper bags and transparent polypropylene microperfurated bags); and the control (unbagged fruits). They were evaluated in size, weight, maturation through the ground color, russeting and burning by the sun. It was verified that the bagging can influence the size and the weight of the fruits in relation to the unbagged fruits (control). The type of the packing and the longest time of permanence of these packings in the fruits can affect the maturation. It was not observed any effect of the bagging or of the type of the packing and the packing time on the russeting. The transparent polypropylene microperfurated bag propiated in some genotypes more burns of fruits in relation to paraffinated butter white paper bag and the treatment control.
Malus domestica; fruit color; temperate-zone fruits
