Evolution of Some Fruit Quality Parameters during Development and Ripening of Three Apricot Cultivars and Effect of Harvest Maturity on Postharvest Maturation

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the fruit development, the quality at harvest and the shelf-life changes of three apricot cultivars—‘Spring Blush’, ‘Robada’, and ‘Kioto’—produced in the conditions of the Southwest Iberian Peninsula. Pomological characteristics and global quality (colour, firmness, total soluble solids, and total acidity) were weekly evaluated during fruit growth and ripening. Apricots were harvested at commercial ripening, and six and three days before, were tested for each harvest on the harvesting day and after three and five days of shelf-life at 20 °C, evaluating chlorophyll and carotenoids content and sensory quality. ‘Spring Blush’ was the earliest cultivar with a small calibre, and the change in colour was found to depend more on the evolution during the shelf-life than on the harvest date; although the panellists rated it well, it presented a significant lack of firmness for successful marketing. ‘Robada’ was the cultivar with the lowest evolution of colour, sugar and acid content, and it was the worst valued by tasters. In ‘Kioto’, differences in soluble solids, acidity, and colour were of high importance in the last days of development on the tree. ‘Kioto’ was the cultivar that showed the largest fruit size and colouring during the ripening on the tree, as well as the one with the highest overall quality that improves during shelf-life.

Green synthesized silver nanoparticles from eucalyptus leaves can enhance shelf life of banana without penetrating in pulp

“…As the storage period progresses, the score of treated banana samples moves from negative axis to positive axis of PC1 and from positive axis to negative axis with PC2 as the shelf-life period showed a diagonal PLOS ONE upward shift in the PC1-PC2 plane. The similar results were observed with three cultivars of apricot to enhance its shelf life [59,86].…”

Morphometric Properties Comparison of Some Turkish and Foreign Apricot Variety Grown at High Altitude

“…Turkish varieties had higher stone dimensions than foreign varieties. Mratinic et al, (2011) reported that the stone weight of twenty Macedonia wild apricot ranged from 1.81 to 4.85 g. The stone length and width were previously reported by Velardo-Micharet, et al, (2021) as from 26.4 to 28.2 mm and between 21.6 and 23.4 mm from apricot cultivars, respectively. Our results were in a close relationship with previous studies and minor differences are due to varieties or high altitudes that are affected by climatic factors and fruit characters.…”

“…Studies on fruit height, width, thickness, and 100 kernel weight were previously reported to vary from 14.0 to 19.17 mm, from 9.99 to 10.20 mm, from 3.3 to 6.27 mm, and from 28.7 to 65.1 g, respectively (Gezer et al, 2003;Vursavuş and Özgüven, 2004). Velardo-Micharet, et al (2021) declared fruit height, diameter, and weight as varying from 46.6 to 53.9 mm, 48.4 to 57.5 mm, and 58.0 to 97.4 g, respectively. Another study was carried out in the Iğdır region on six apricot cultivars, fruit and stone weights were recorded as 27.88-52.9 g and 1.96-2.94 g, respectively (Muradoğlu et al, 2011).…”

“…In addition, the color variables have been connected to the cultivars and presence of phenolic compounds, anthocyanins, and antioxidant capacity in fruits (Akin et al, 2008;Christiensen, 2000;Cömert et al, 2020). Therefore, numerous researches were performed on chromatic parameters by Akın et al, (2008); Fan et al, (2017) and Velardo-Micharet, et al (2021) to determine the fruit quality of apricot. In this study, the fruit color of Turkish apricot varieties was detected 50.39-55.75 for L*, 15.77-30.02 for a*, 33.9-42.34 for b*, 27.75-49.06 for C*, and 32.15-66.39 for hue o .…”