Multi-year comparison of normal and split-pit peach quality

Split pit in peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) is an inner disorder that occurs during fruit development.
It is known that split pit tends to promote fruit maturation on trees and/or fruit softening and deterioration after harvest, leading to preharvest fruit drop and reduced postharvest storability, respectively.
On the other hand, detailed differences between normal and split-pit fruit quality and their annual changes are not well understood.
In this study, we compared several traits including size, soluble sugar content (SSC), pH, total phenol content (TPC), and harvest date between normal and split-pit ‘Shimizu Hakuto’ peach fruit harvested in four consecutive years (2018-2021). Although the results slightly differed by year, on the whole, split-pit fruit had the tendency to exhibit larger size, lower SSC and pH, and higher TPC, and to be harvested earlier than normal fruit.
Further investigation of the correlation between traits revealed that early harvested fruit tended to have high TPC and low pH, regardless of pit splitting or the lack of it.
These results collectively indicate that, from the standpoint of fruit quality, split-pit fruit have slightly inferior traits that may adversely affect consumer preference and market value compared with normal fruit.
From the results obtained in this study and our previous work on the nondestructive detection of split-pit peach fruit by the acoustic vibration method, we discuss the possible use of this method in practical cultivation management and fruit sorting, from the perspective of how the harvested fruit will be sold, i.e., as a premium gift or for general consumption.

IV Asian Horticultural Congress – AHC2023

T. Kawai, F. Matsumori, A. Ikeda, T. Ohashi, G. Inohara, T. Ichioka, A. Nishiguchi, R. Mukai, K. Hirano, F. Fukuda

fruit size, harvest date, inner disorder, pH, pit splitting, SSC, TPC

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2024.1404.140