Articles
Mealiness development as a factor of pre-harvest shading time
Article number
1403_22
Pages
183 – 190
Language
English
Abstract
‘Forelle’ pear (Pyrus communis L.) is an important blushed pear, but inclined to develop mealiness, a soft, dry textural disorder associated with a lack of juiciness.
This study examined how pre-harvest shade duration of outer canopy fruit affected mealiness occurrence.
The irradiances and surface temperatures of fruit outside, inside, and in the shade were measured 13 to 3 weeks before harvest.
Fruit were harvested at commercial maturity and ripeness and quality indices, mealiness incidence, juice weight and area were measured.
The 3-D microstructures of fruit tissue samples were examined following 8 weeks of cold storage at -0.5°C and 7 days of ripening at 20°C using X-ray computed tomography.
Fruit shaded 13, 11 and 9 weeks before harvest were characterized by fewer and smaller intercellular air spaces, compared to fruit shaded 7, 5 and 3 weeks before harvest.
Fruit shaded closer to harvest demonstrated highly branched and interconnected pore networks with large cavities which form a complex porous network, which subsequently affected texture with a higher degree of mealiness.
Shading and shading time seems closely related to porosity and mealiness.
Nevertheless, despite the use of various treatments in this study, none of them were successful in completely eradicating the incidence of mealiness in ‘Forelle’ pears.
This suggests that the development of mealiness in these pears may not solely be influenced by the amount of light received in the canopy.
This study examined how pre-harvest shade duration of outer canopy fruit affected mealiness occurrence.
The irradiances and surface temperatures of fruit outside, inside, and in the shade were measured 13 to 3 weeks before harvest.
Fruit were harvested at commercial maturity and ripeness and quality indices, mealiness incidence, juice weight and area were measured.
The 3-D microstructures of fruit tissue samples were examined following 8 weeks of cold storage at -0.5°C and 7 days of ripening at 20°C using X-ray computed tomography.
Fruit shaded 13, 11 and 9 weeks before harvest were characterized by fewer and smaller intercellular air spaces, compared to fruit shaded 7, 5 and 3 weeks before harvest.
Fruit shaded closer to harvest demonstrated highly branched and interconnected pore networks with large cavities which form a complex porous network, which subsequently affected texture with a higher degree of mealiness.
Shading and shading time seems closely related to porosity and mealiness.
Nevertheless, despite the use of various treatments in this study, none of them were successful in completely eradicating the incidence of mealiness in ‘Forelle’ pears.
This suggests that the development of mealiness in these pears may not solely be influenced by the amount of light received in the canopy.
Publication
Authors
L. Dippenaar, L. Schoeman, W.J. Steyn, A.A. Tsige, E.M. Crouch
Keywords
European pear, texture, eating quality, irradiation, temperature, X-ray computed tomography
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