Articles
Uniformity of fruit maturity and quality from different wood types within dwarfed kiwifruit canopies
Article number
1366_28
Pages
243 – 252
Language
English
Abstract
Kiwifruit lack visual cues of harvest maturity, leading to strip-harvesting of the crop.
This results in variability of fruit quality present on the vine at harvest entering the supply chain.
Grading out low-quality fruit adds an expense to packing, and modern grading systems can struggle to perform reliable and rapid assessments of fruit maturity to remove fruit with undesirable quality traits.
We segregated fruit from four Actinidia chinensis var. chinensis Zesy002, vines, each grafted to either a low-, medium- or high-vigour rootstock, according to the wood type from which the shoots bearing fruit originated.
Wood types included low-, medium- and high-vigour canes, spurs or perennial structures.
The shape and weight of all fruit were assessed on an automated sorting system, while laboratory assessments of fruit dry matter concentration, flesh color, flesh firmness, and total soluble solids content were made on a randomly selected 20-fruit sample for each wood type per vine.
The proportion of different wood types of scion canopies grafted to different vigour rootstocks were not different.
Subtle differences in the uniformity of both fruit maturity and quality existed from shoots from various wood types within a canopy.
For example, fruit distribution curves were skewed toward flat fruit from both high vigour rootstocks and fruit originating from shoots growing off high- and medium-vigour wood types.
Consequently, the adoption of low-vigour orchard systems or the selection of low-vigour wood types during pruning could reduce the number of flat fruit entering the supply chain.
This results in variability of fruit quality present on the vine at harvest entering the supply chain.
Grading out low-quality fruit adds an expense to packing, and modern grading systems can struggle to perform reliable and rapid assessments of fruit maturity to remove fruit with undesirable quality traits.
We segregated fruit from four Actinidia chinensis var. chinensis Zesy002, vines, each grafted to either a low-, medium- or high-vigour rootstock, according to the wood type from which the shoots bearing fruit originated.
Wood types included low-, medium- and high-vigour canes, spurs or perennial structures.
The shape and weight of all fruit were assessed on an automated sorting system, while laboratory assessments of fruit dry matter concentration, flesh color, flesh firmness, and total soluble solids content were made on a randomly selected 20-fruit sample for each wood type per vine.
The proportion of different wood types of scion canopies grafted to different vigour rootstocks were not different.
Subtle differences in the uniformity of both fruit maturity and quality existed from shoots from various wood types within a canopy.
For example, fruit distribution curves were skewed toward flat fruit from both high vigour rootstocks and fruit originating from shoots growing off high- and medium-vigour wood types.
Consequently, the adoption of low-vigour orchard systems or the selection of low-vigour wood types during pruning could reduce the number of flat fruit entering the supply chain.
Authors
A. Friend, A. Medic, B. van Hooijdonk, R. Diack, M. Punter, A. Tattersall, J. Byrne, J.W. Johnston
Keywords
Actinidia chinensis var. chinensis Zesy002, flat fruit, fruit shape, rootstock, vigour
Groups involved
- Division Plant-Environment Interactions in Field Systems
- Division Temperate Tree Fruits
- Division Temperate Tree Nuts
- Division Tropical and Subtropical Fruit and Nuts
- Division Horticulture for Development
- Division Vine and Berry Fruits
- Division Precision Horticulture and Engineering
- Commission Agroecology and Organic Farming Systems
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