COMPARISON OF QUALITY EVOLUTION DURING STORAGE BETWEEN DIFFERENT CULTIVARS OF PLUMS

Because of the high amount of stone fruit supply just after harvest, growers are attempted to store their stone fruits for a short time to receive better prices some time later in the season.
Therefore a good knowledge is needed about how the fruits behave during this storage and how these storage conditions can be optimised to maintain the best quality possible.

During this research it was checked up on how senescence plums could be delayed by simulating various storage conditions (different temperatures and relative humidities). Therefore different quality parameters were measured: loss of firmness, decline of pectines and the morphology of the fruit flesh.
Another goal of this research was to determine differences between the different cultivars.
The following cultivars were used: Castors, Lapins, Somerset and Sylvia for cherries, Bleue de Belgique, Belle de Louvain, Reine Claude d’Althan and Monsieur Hâtif for plums.

The temperature had the greatest influence on the fruit quality.
Low temperature could retard the internal breakdown of the fruit flesh, especially the solution of the pectines was retarded which resulted in a higher firmness.
Even though some people state that immature picking is the solution for a longer storage, this investigation showed no quality

XXV International Horticultural Congress, Part 8: Quality of Horticultural Products

A. Peirs, V. Parmentier, H. Wustenberghs, J. Keulemans

firmness, pectin content, picking time, plums, storage

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2000.518.19