Royal Delicious apple fruits were procured from a well
maintained commercial orchard situated at an elevation
of 5,500 feet above meen sea level in village Chiathla
(Kotkhai), District Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India. The
total number of fruits for this experiment was divided in
to two sets. Before transportation one set was subjected
to pre-cooling for 30 minutes at 10–15 °C, 70–75% RH
in orchard itself by using low-pressure container which
has been specially designed by modifying the head of an
autoclave of 20 L capacity provided with a glass flat
bottom flask designed as a humidifier. The pressure was
maintained at 500 mmHg. The other set of fruit was not
pre-cooled. Fruit from both the sets were subjected to
postharvest treatments.