Kiwiberry selections vary in susceptibility to skin damage

Apart from size, a key characteristic of kiwiberry that differentiates them from current commercial kiwifruit is their thin, living skins.
Significant amounts of skin damage have been observed on some kiwiberry selections but not others.
A bespoke automated device to replicate observed skin damage was able to differentiate selections on their susceptibility to skin damage.
The incidence of skin damage generated was not affected by fruit weight within a selection.
Microscopic observations of skin cross-sections of representative selections did not reveal any consistent structural differences to explain susceptibility or resilience to skin damage in the limited samples observed to date, though epidermal structure remains a prime candidate.
These findings will be useful for fruit trait phenotyping of kiwiberry selections.

XI International Symposium on Kiwifruit

A. White, J. Cho, M. Seelye, I.C. Hallett, A. Chan, N. Shaw, S. Brierley, K. Richards, S. Seymour, J. Ansorge

Actinidia arguta, skin structure, epidermis, fruit weight, microscopy

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2025.1431.8