PITTING OF GRAPEFRUIT THAT RESEMBLES CHILLING INJURY

A postharvest peel disorder, morphologically similar to chilling injur y (CI), was detected on nonchilled 'Marsh' white grapefruit (Citrus pa radisi Macf.). Like CI, the disorder was characterized by pitting of t he peel caused by the collapse of oil gland dusters. This disorder is distinguished from CI in that pitting developed within the first 10 da ys of postharvest storage on fruit held at high (21.0C), but not low ( 4.5C), temperatures and on waxed fruit, but not unwaxed fruit. Pathoge ns isolated from pitted fruit were similar to those of nonpitted fruit . No preharvest pitting or visual clues of fruit susceptibility were o bserved.