Pre-harvest fungicide strategy critical to prevent apple storage rots and scab

Each autumn, apple growers face a quiet reckoning: the fruit that looks perfect at harvest may already carry the seeds of its own ruin. Penn State Extension researchers remind us that wet weather in the weeks before picking can wash away fungicide protection, leaving invisible infections to awaken months later in cold storage — a lesson in how the consequences of a single rainstorm can ripple forward through an entire season's labor. The work of protecting a crop does not end at the tree; it extends through every handling decision, every spray timing, every hour between orchard and cooler.