DEFINING MINIMUM MATURITY INDICES FOR HARVEST AND MARKETING OF EARLY-SEASON ‘ACCO’ POMEGRANATE FRUIT

In order to send the produce early to the market, growers tend to harvest early-season pomegranate fruit prior to its maturity which often results in immature fruit with low flavor and quality.
Therefore, in order to standardize minimum maturity indices for harvest of the early-season pomegranate cultivar ‘Acco’, fruits were evaluated to know the quality parameters at 10-day intervals during the last period of the ripening process.
It was found that slight changes only in peel and aril color, juice total soluble solids and acid contents were observed with gradual increase in fruit and aril weights during the last stage of ripening.
Further, gradual and significant increase was observed in fruit flavor preference that was accompanied by a decrease in perception of undesired astringency mouth-feel sensation during the final stages of ripening.
High correlation between flavor preference and aril weight (r2=0.92) was observed, aril weight of more than 0.25 g might be considered as a simple and reliable maturity index for determining the period for commercial harvest of early-season ‘Acco’ pomegranate fruit.

III International Symposium on Pomegranate and Minor Mediterranean Fruits

L. Mayuoni-Kirshenbaum, R. Porat

astringency, flavor, maturity indices, pomegranate, ripening

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2015.1089.63