Fruit rotting very quickly

[candleman]

hey all,

I have allot of fruit which I buy once a week, and I seperate it out into two large bowls.

one bowl is a large plastic bowl, the other is ceramic.
I never cover any the fruit, there are no fruit fly's or ants around so I don't bother.

ANYTHING I put in the large plastic one goes mouldy and rotswithin two days.
My nectarines were mouldy and soft at the core within 36 hours, but the remainder of the nectarines that were in the Ceramic bowl were still hard and not quite ready to eat yet. They were all bought at the same time from the same place.

anything in the plastic one goes mouldy/mushy within just days, while the exact same bag of fruit in the other bowl just 3 feet away is fresh even a week later.

What on earth is going on?

[Risker]

At a guess.

Ceramic would be better at keeping the temperature constant. Are either near any heat sources? Are they really identical bowls of fruit? Bananas ripen other fruits that are kept with them.

How many times have you tried it? To do the experiment properly you'd have to have identical bowls of fruit with all fruit coming from the same batches and do it several times.

[CoolCat]

Next to tempature the ceramic bowl might also regulate moisture better than the plastic one. And if it's a rough ceramic their might be a tiny bit of air circulation between the bowl and the fruit where the plastic is smooth and the surface contact between it and the fruit would be greater. Just the shape of the bowl could be of importance as well, most likely they aren't the exact same shape and/or size.

It might be other simple things as well, if you buy your fruit and first fill the ceramic bowl you would use the fruit from the top of the bag, the leftover fruit that goes in the plastic bowl would then be from the bottom of the shopping bag and might have endured more strain and bruises during transport.

You need to go MythBusters on this yo ! :p

[Sgable84]

Apples naturally give off a chemical that ripens other fruit faster than normal. I would just keep them separate. ALSO, in the fridge, there should be a drawer marked "fruits and vegetables" that is designed to keep them fresher for longer. I would put that to good use! Good Luck!

[Risker]

^ I don't think apples are too bad unless they are getting a bit old themselves, it's bananas that produce the most ethylene causing other fruits to ripen.

[Andy_T]

Might it be that you have some mold in that plastic bowl of yours?
Washing it out with vinegar might help in that case.

Well, and getting a second ceramic bowl, if that obviously works better for you ...

Best regards,
Andy