Selected orchard management improves apple quality. Dario Stefanelli 1 , Janine Jaeger 1 , David Cornwall 2 , Ian Goodwin 2 , Dugald Close 3 , Rod Jones 1 1 DPI Knoxfield 2 DPI Tatura 3 University of Tasmania Australian horticulture is under increasing pressure to identify fruit traits to differentiate their product. Increasing costs of production combined with reduced fruit prices at the farm gate due to competition from overseas sources have substantially reduced profitability. Improving fruit quality and increasing consumer awareness that horticultural produce is a good source of antioxidants with the potential to benefit human health could be a differentiation trait for Australian horticulture. Fruit quality can be manipulated through orchard management practices such as irrigation or crop load. Scientists at DPI in collaboration with the University of Tasmania investigated the effects of deficit irrigation in the Goulburn Valley in Victoria and the effects of crop load in the Huon Valley in Tasmania on yield, quality and composition of apples ‘Royal Gala’ and ‘Pink Lady’ as part of the PIPS (Production, Irrigation, Pests and Soil) and Premium Fruit projects. Fruit size, sweetness and antioxidant content were measured in response to both low and high irrigation or crop load treatments. Irrigation experiments on ‘Royal Gala’ and ‘Pink Lady’ commenced in 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons, respectively. Five irrigation treatments were applied as % of grower irrigation practice: 38, 50, 74, 100, 162 %. Irrigation amount was varied by changing irrigation application rate of the drippers along the irrigation lines. All irrigation treatments were operated for the same run-time. ‘Royal Gala’ data for 2010-11 is not reported in this article as no significant irrigation was applied due to excessive rainfall. The crop load experiment in Tasmania was performed in 2009-10 season by manually adjusting tree crop load to 50 t/ha, considered the normal crop load of the district, and to 80 t/ha, a high crop load treatment. Sweetness (soluble solids content, SSC, °Brix) and antioxidant status of the fruit (total plant polyphenols, TPP, mg gallic acid equivalent/g fresh weight) were measured on a sample of 10 fruit from each experimental plot. Fruit samples from the crop load experiment were shipped in a refrigerated container from Tasmania to DPI Knoxfield where the same analyses described above were performed. Results Fruit size Fruit size was significantly reduced by deficit irrigation as previously reported in the Tree Fruit May 2012 issue. The same trend was observed in both varieties. Irrigation treatments had no significant impact on fruit number (Table 1). Increasing crop load did not have an impact on fruit size on both varieties in the considered year (Table 2). Fruit sweetness