Incidence of stem-end rot in kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) inoculated withBotrytisconidia just before entering coolstorage was reduced progressively with increasing duration of a holding period at ambient temperature between harvesting and grading/packing, from 49 with a nil holding period to 6 with 7 days at ambient. A holding period at 0°C before grading/packing was also effective, but over a longer time scale; rot incidence was not reduced with 4 days, but was reduced to 20 with 7 days at 0°c. A similar pattern of reductions in botrytis not incidence occurred in uninoculated 0kiwifruit subjected to the same treatments. The high incidence of rots, relative to other treatments, in fruit packed and coolstored immediately after harvest appeared to be caused by an interaction between the effects of early coolstorage and the effects of the polyethylene-lined tray, because reductions in rot incidence did occur in treatments where only one or the other of these factors was present.
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