Two of Honeycrispâs signature problems can be reduced by holding apples at the proper cold storage temperature. Renae Moran, a University of Maine pomologist, spoke on bitter pit and soft scald March 17 during the New England Winter Fruit Meetings. In an attempt to predict bitter pit, Moran harvested apples three weeks before their predicted maturity, held them at 70 degrees for three weeks and counted the number with bitter pit. âThis helped me identify some high-risk orchards,â she said. She experimented with conditioning apples and not conditioning before storing them at 34 and 37 degrees for three months. Conditioning is holding the apples at 50 to 70 degrees for five to seven days before putting them in cold storage.