Discovery has an inherently short shelf-life and needs to be marketed quickly under conditions that slow the rate of softening. It is particularly important to keep the fruit temperature below 10^oC during distribution.

The starch staining pattern determined on consignments of fruit at harvest can be used to predict the loss in firmness of fruits kept at 10^oC (Fig. 2). This method can help to regulate the supply of Discovery to the fresh market by offering a method to identify over-mature fruit at harvest. However, this test cannot be used to estimate the actual shelf-life of Discovery apples, as the temperature experienced during distribution is likely to be variable.

There is a need to pick over Discovery trees several times rather than delay until the majority of fruits are of acceptable quality. In the latter situation a proportion of the apples will be too ripe to provide acceptable quality after distribution.