EVALUATION OF DRY MATTER IN SOUR CHERRY (PRUNUS CERASUS L.)

Dry matter of fruits may be an essential parameter in fruit processing.
Especially in the very energy-intensive freeze drying process, high values of dry matter in the freshly harvested fruits contribute to a lower requirement of energy and to lower costs.
In sour cherry often processed by freeze drying, little is known about the dry matter content of various cultivars.
For that reason, the parameter was evaluated in 33 cultivars during the years 2005-2007. Dependent on cultivar and year, values between 10.7% (‘Montmorency’ in 2007) and 28.2% (‘Stevnsbaer Viki’ in 2006) could be observed.
In the average over the years, ‘Montmorency’ was characterized by the lowest dry matter content (13.1%). Maximum values were very different for all the other cultivars ‘Stevnsbaer Viki’ reaching 23.9% and ‘Stevnsbaer Birgitte’ 24.1%. In spite of clear variations between the years, cultivars differed significantly.
The results show that cultivars with a high dry matter content are available for using in freeze drying.
The content of dry matter was highly correlated to the content of soluble solids (correlation coefficient 0.91). Therefore the investigation of soluble solids can be used for rapid testing of dry matter of a wide range of genotypes.

I International Symposium on Biotechnology of Fruit Species: BIOTECHFRUIT2008

C. Grafe, M. Höfer, M. Schuster

Prunus cerasus L., dry matter, soluble solids, fruit processing, freeze-drying

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2009.839.35