Measuring Uniformity of Peach Maturity1

Abstract

‘Elberta’ peach trees were given a once-over harvest to determine uniformity of fruit maturity within trees. Harvests were made at each of 3 dates to detect changes in uniformity as the crop matured. Flesh color (Hunter “a” value) and Magness-Taylor firmness were used as maturity indices for each individual fruit. Standard deviations reflecting flesh color and firmness variances among fruit on the same tree were good objective measures of uniformity of maturity. Fruit firmness and flesh color both became less uniform as the fruit matured to a certain stage, beyond which uniformity increased.