‘Granny Smith’ is an important apple variety for Washington State, where it has consistently been ranked as the third most-produced conventional cultivar since 2017. This apple variety is highly susceptible to sunscald, a sun-stress-related postharvest disorder that typically appears after three months of cold storage and makes apples unmarketable. Previous research has shown that a decrease in chlorophyll (chl) and an increase in carotenoids (car) in fruit peel have been associated with increased sunlight exposure and the development of sunscald. In order to assess the use of the chl/car ratio measured non-destructively with a Vis/NIR hyperspectral imager as a predictive index for sun exposure and sunscald development postharvest, ‘Granny Smith’ apples were picked from the periphery and inner canopy sections of the tree in 2021 and 2023 seasons. Fruit position in the canopy was documented during sampling and later correlated with hyperspectral images, chlorophyll, and carotenoid content in the peel. Subsequently, the collected peel sample was immediately frozen with liquid nitrogen and stored at -80°C. The chl/car ratio obtained from the reflectance values from the hyperspectral images was well correlated (r2 = 0.82) with the destructive determination of the ratio. Based on k-means clustering analysis, samples were grouped in accordance with the chl/car ratio and associated with fruit position on the tree. Apples with the highest chl/car ratios (1.4 to 1.7) were those located on the shaded portion of the trees. Apples with sunburn had the lowest chl/car ratios (0.1 to 1.2) and were located on the periphery of the tree. The results indicate that the chlorophyll to carotenoid ratio measured non-destructively at harvest can potentially be used for pre-storage sorting of ‘Granny Smith’ apples based on relative sun exposure and sunscald susceptibility, reducing postharvest losses. However, the establishment of the index reliability can benefit from additional years of data collection.
