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Mid-season peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch cv Majestic) fruit of five maturity stages, from red suture to red, fill soft. were subjected to warming treatments before and during storage at 5C. Intermittent warming and delayed storage accelerated softening in red suture, half and full red hard fruit. The treatment efect was greater with less mature fruit. Treatment had no eflect on soluble solids concentration, total phenolics, or titratable acidity. 'Majestic' peaches could be held at 5C up to four weeks ifharvested at the halfred or full red hard stage and held at room temperature for 24 h before storage.

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Growers in north and central Texas produce peaches of exceptional size and quality yet have no information on the best maturity stage/storage regime for maximum shelf life. `Majestic' peaches were harvested at five maturity stages, corresponding to hard green through full red, soft ripeness. Intermittent warming and/or delayed warming reduces chilling injury in peaches and these treatments were used on hard green through firm red stages. Fruit were held 4 weeks at 5 °C, 85% RH continuously (control); 1 day at 20 °C followed by 4 weeks at 5 °C (DS); 4 weeks at 5 °C with 1 day warming at 20 °C every 2 weeks (IW). Chilling injury symptoms (internal browning) were noted on control and IW peaches after 2 weeks storage. We concluded that hard green peaches are too immature and red peaches at velvet and full soft stages are too soft (<20N flesh resistance) to ship. Chilling injury appeared in peaches after 2 weeks storage at 5 °C but could be avoided by delaying storage for 24 hours after harvest.

No abstract