Prevention of Tipburn in Iceberg Lettuce During Postharvest Storage. I. J. Misaghi, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721. N. F. Oebker, and R. B. Hine. Department of Plant Science, and Department of Plant Pathology, University of Arizona, Tucson 85721. Plant Dis. 76:1169-1171. Accepted for publication 23 July 1992. Copyright 1992 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-76-1169.

Tipburn, an abiotic necrotic breakdown of marginal leaf tissue of iceberg lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. capitata), was consistently induced in field-grown, detached iceberg lettuce heads by high storage temperature, e.g., 25 C for 7 days or 28 C for 4 days. However, tipburn was prevented if most stem tissues were removed before the temperature treatment. By contrast, removal of between 14 and 40% of the stem tissue (by weight) did not result in significant (P = 0.05) changes in the incidence and severity of tipburn.