From Frank Rossi, who introduces students to plants grown for foods, beverages, fiber, aesthetics and recreation in HORT 1101 (Horticultural Science and Systems).
This week we visited Cornell Orchards to learn from our ecological orchard guru Ian Merwin about apple production, storage, chemistry, and planting methods.
Did you know that Cornell Orchards keeps apples fresh and tasty overwinter by using ‘controlled atmosphere storage’ – a technique developed at Cornell. Fruit is sealed in a cold room and the nitrogen is used to drop the oxygen level from 21 percent to 2.5 percent. This slows fruit aging and preserves firmness, acidity, sugars and Vitamin C.
In addition to conducting ‘sensory evaluations, HORT 1101 students measured and determine the relationships between visual ripeness, seed size, sugar content, and position on the tree:
Ian Merwin shares the finer points of growing apples with HORT 1101 students:
