Articles
THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT LOCALITIES AND HARVEST TIME ON THE STORAGE PERIOD OF QUINCE
Esme, a physiological disorder occurring during storage, was investigated in relation to the storage period.
For this purpose fruits were provided from orchards in different localities.
The orchard from the low altitude was considered as the first ecology and the orchard from the high altitude was considered as the second ecology.
The fruit were harvested from the first or second ecology orchards at three different times (early harvest, mid-season harvest and late harvest) and stored for 6 months in the cold storage unit at 0 ± 0.1 °C and 85 ± 5 % RH.
The weight loss in quinces decreased by 8.41 % during the storage period. pH rose to 4.56 from 3.68. Ascorbic acid decreased significantly and reduced to 6.79 mg/100 ml from 27.81 mg/100 ml.
The respiration rate rose to 25.30 mg CO2/kgh whereas it was 8.53 mg CO2/kgh initially.
Titratable acidity fell to 0.25 g/100 ml from 1.5 g/100 ml.
Pectin esterase activity fell to 0.123 ml/h from 0.29 ml/h.
Firmness of fruit flesh reduced to 10.8916 from 19.7 lb.
Water soluble solids increased at first and reached 15.5 % and than decreased and fell to 12.4 % at the end of storage.
The incidence of fruit browning was 85 % and 37.5 % for late harvest and mid-season harvest, respectively. 43.3 % and 38.3 % browning were observed in the fruits from high altitude orchards, respectively.
As the result of the research, it was concluded that different ecological conditions and harvest times affected the fruit flesh browning and fruit quality in quince cv.
Esme.
The delay in harvest time increased the rate of browning, however, it improved the eating quality at the beginning of storage.
Early harvest adversely affected the eating quality of fruits (with respect to suffocation, astringency, sweetness, sourness, juiciness, firmness, flavour and attractiveness). The browning rate increased in the quince grown in orchards at high altitude, whereas the eating quality was lower compared with the fruits of the orchard at low altitude.