Watercore in Apple Landraces (Malus domestica Borkh.) as a quality indicator

Abstract

Watercore is the presence of a vitrified texture intruded in the pulp of the fruit. It is found in fruits from different genus and families; and it has been studied in apples. Watercore was described, in apples, as a texture with differential sensorial characteristics in relationship with the ordinary pulp, and its presence is currently considered a defect in apple production, causing economic losses. In this study, it is described as a dichotomous descriptor. We analysed 641 apples from a region belonging to Central Spain (Guadarrama mountain range and the close Tagus Basin River); it was found that around 30% of those apples shown this characteristic, being practically all of them from landraces. Studies related to traditional cultivars do not analyze such characteristic, considered up today as a defect. Nevertheless, we discuss that watercore can have some potential as it gives to apple a distinct appearance and aroma, all of them of value in differential quality and international seal protection. As a result, we conclude our preliminary analysis that it is highly recommended to take into consideration watercore as a descriptor in apple characterizations.

Morphological characterization of 23 Malus domestica Borkh cultivars from central Spain

“…A set of 67 morphological descriptors (25 quantitative and 42 qualitative, of which 3 were discrete, 23 nominal and 16 ordinal) were assessed on for 4 organs: 8 descriptors on winter 1-year-old wooden branches (or shoots), 15 on leaves, 16 on flowers and 28 on fruits (Table 3). The descriptors were obtained from IBPGR (1982), UPOV (2005) and Urbina and Dalmases (2014) and new descriptors and further categories in some qualitative traits were also considered, such as watercore (Arnal, 2021). Ten (10) to 20 fruits, 20 leaves, 10 flowers and 20 shoots were collected from different orientations of the tree crown in two years (except flowers) from summer 2016 to autumn 2019 and stored at 4-7ºC until processing.…”