Relative humidity and its interaction with the storage temperature of 'Gala' apples and mutants

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of relative humidity at two different temperatures on the postharvest quality of 'Gala', 'Royal Gala', 'Maxi Gala' and 'Brookfield' apples during eight months under controlled atmosphere storage. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with split-plot scheme, where the main plots were composed of temperatures, 0.5 and 1.0 degrees C, the subplots were the low (LRH) and high (HRH) relative humidity and the sub subplots were the four cultivars, resulting in a tri-factorial experiment: ((2x2) x4) with four repetitions of 25 fruits each. The results showed that there is a high respiratory rate in 'Maxi Gala' and 'Brookfield' apples in all storage conditions. The 'Brookfield' apples presented high pulp cracks when stored under a HRH environment. The temperature of 1.0 degrees C decreases the ACC oxidase enzyme activity and ethylene production and maintains higher flesh firmness. The LRH maintains higher flesh firmness, total soluble solids and decreases the flesh breakdown. The fruits of the 'Brookfield' cultivar presented a lower storage potential in relation to the other cultivars.