Articles
ROOTSTOCK-MEDIATED EFFECTS ON WATERMELON RIPENING BEHAVIOR AND FRUIT PHYSICOCHEMICAL AND PHYTOCHEMICAL COMPOSITION
Article number
1079_97
Pages
707 – 714
Language
English
Abstract
Sound prediction of harvest maturity is particularly critical for non-climacteric fruit, such as watermelon, whose physiological maturation terminates at harvest and their quality steadily declines thereafter.
The most common non-destructive maturity index for watermelon is the number of days past fruit setting.
The implications of grafting watermelon onto rootstocks resistant to soil-borne pathogens remain largely overlooked, as regards fruit ripening behavior, notwithstanding the wide commercial application of this practice.
The evaluation of rootstock-mediated effects on watermelon fruit quality has relied by convention on the assumption of synchronized fruit maturation on grafted and self-rooted plants.
Differences reported in physicochemical quality components of fruit from grafted and self-rooted plants is thus limited to a snap-shot of quality at harvest whereas it may in fact reflect differences in harvest maturity.
Our main objective has been to characterize the evolution of physicochemical and phytochemical components of quality during watermelon ripening (30-50 days post-anthesis; dpa) in response to grafting.
Flesh color, firmness, titratable acidity (TA), and soluble solids (SSC), soluble carbohydrates, lycopene and citrulline contents were assessed in fruit from grafted and self-rooted plants.
Grafting increased firmness, TA, and lycopene content though it delayed its peak.
Lycopene content was mostly ripening-dependant, highly correlated and synchronous with changes in pulp chroma (C*) and color component a*. Significant interaction of ripening with grafting was observed as total sugars and SSC peaked later in fruit from grafted plants.
Citrulline content increased with ripening in fruit of grafted plants, reaching a peak at 45 dpa; whereas in non-grafted ones it was unchanged between 30-45 dpa and declined at 50 dpa.
Fruit quality of grafted watermelon may benefit from delayed harvest, as grafting appears overall to delay ripening.
The most common non-destructive maturity index for watermelon is the number of days past fruit setting.
The implications of grafting watermelon onto rootstocks resistant to soil-borne pathogens remain largely overlooked, as regards fruit ripening behavior, notwithstanding the wide commercial application of this practice.
The evaluation of rootstock-mediated effects on watermelon fruit quality has relied by convention on the assumption of synchronized fruit maturation on grafted and self-rooted plants.
Differences reported in physicochemical quality components of fruit from grafted and self-rooted plants is thus limited to a snap-shot of quality at harvest whereas it may in fact reflect differences in harvest maturity.
Our main objective has been to characterize the evolution of physicochemical and phytochemical components of quality during watermelon ripening (30-50 days post-anthesis; dpa) in response to grafting.
Flesh color, firmness, titratable acidity (TA), and soluble solids (SSC), soluble carbohydrates, lycopene and citrulline contents were assessed in fruit from grafted and self-rooted plants.
Grafting increased firmness, TA, and lycopene content though it delayed its peak.
Lycopene content was mostly ripening-dependant, highly correlated and synchronous with changes in pulp chroma (C*) and color component a*. Significant interaction of ripening with grafting was observed as total sugars and SSC peaked later in fruit from grafted plants.
Citrulline content increased with ripening in fruit of grafted plants, reaching a peak at 45 dpa; whereas in non-grafted ones it was unchanged between 30-45 dpa and declined at 50 dpa.
Fruit quality of grafted watermelon may benefit from delayed harvest, as grafting appears overall to delay ripening.
Publication
Authors
G.A. Soteriou, M.C. Kyriacou, A.S. Siomos, D. Gerasopoulos
Keywords
watermelon, grafting, ripening, texture, carbohydrates, lycopene, citrulline
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