Here is the gist of the information I received. I'd probably hedge my bets anyway, by not storing bulbs and apples in the same refrigerator drawer (and why don't they make refrigerators with 4 produce compartments? I always end up with a stray bag of carrots, bunch of celery, and such cluttering up the shelves.) I've put pots of bulbs for forcing in the refrigerator to chill (and you'd have more room for produce if you didn't, mutters my husband) and haven't noticed a problem. The pots are generally in a flimsy plastic bag (supermarket produce-holding kind) to corral stray earthworms and bits of mud. I also use the bags as intensive care tents when rooting cuttings. While they keep moisture levels higher under the plastic my understanding is that atmospheric gases are able to pass through. So, is anyone interested in a "proper" study: bulbs in drawer with apples, bulbs elsewhere in refrigerator, potted bulbs with/ without apples, unrefrigerated bulbs, etc. BTW - it is bananas that I put in a paper bag (at room temperature) with other fruit I'm trying to hustle into ripeness as somewhere/ when I was told bananas produce lots of ethylene. And bananas don't get refrigerated. Comment by Henk Gude, Applied Plant Research (the former bulb research centre): Sachets containing absorbing material(like zeolite) are used for trapping ethylene gas. The gas is oxidised by Potasium permanganate inside the grains. The sachets are useful for trapping ethylene in storage rooms or packages with fruit and vegetables (to prevent ripening). In tulip bulbs the ethylene damage threshold is much lower than in fruit, so the sachets are much less effective in tulips (they don't catch the last ethylene molecules). With respect to the combined storage of refrigerated bulbs and fruit: I don't expect that the ethylene trapping material will be necessary (or useful) in this case, because at low temperatures (below 10 deg C) the fruit will produce little ethylene and the sensitivity of the bulbs for ethylene is also much lower than at room temperature. At temperatures above 10 C (of course this is not a sharp transition) the ethylene problem is there and the ethylene trapping material will be useful. Verzonden: woensdag 18 september 2002 8:49 Aan: 'h.gude@ppo.dlo.nl'