Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


 The fruit is exceedingly tender during the first two or three
weeks after the blossoms have fallen and is easily damaged by
rubbing against twigs, branches, or other fruits. Young fruits
injured by wind chafing develop a dark discoloration as a result


Fig. 89.-Pineapple orange with hard callused area of rind resulting from
 repeated punctures and scratches caused by swinging against a thorn.

of injury to the epidermal cells, which later give rise to a silvery
or grayish, thin scurf closely resembling thrips markings. In
fact, wind chafing has been commonly confused with thrips in-
jury. As such fruit grows to normal size, the injured areas in-
crease proportionately in size, so that even a slight injury to the
young fruit may result in a very conspicuous blemish at matur-
ity. While slight wind chafing may result in but very superficial,
silvery markings (Fig. 88), more extensive wind chafing may re-
sult in larger, thicker, callused places, forming roughened, scab-