Researchers Looking At Improving the Honeycrisp

Honeycrisp apples have been commercially available for more than 25 years, and have fast become one of the more popular apple varieties.  The popularity of the apple isn't hampered by it's cost.  It's one of the more expensive apple options, primarily because they're hard to grow.

Rich Marini  with Penn State University extension said the Honeycrisp poses other challengers for growers and sellers.

"When you pick the fruit it looks good.  You put it in cold storage for a couple of months, when you take it out, it looks good. You put it on your kitchen table for a couple of days and you start to see these sunken areas in the fruit. they're kinda blacish brown in color, and when you peel it you get this brown corky tissue just under the skin."

Marini said you can cut away the brown bitterpit-impacted areas and the apple is safe to eat.  However bitter pit can also exist in honeycrispapples on store shelves, making them unsellable.  So, Marini and colleagues are developing new models to better-predict bitter pit, manipulating the ratio of nitrogen and calcium in the field, and trying different tree shoot lengths.

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