Articles
THE PEDICEL’S ROLE IN POSTHARVEST WEIGHT LOSS OF TWO SWEET CHERRY CULTIVARS
Article number
903_131
Pages
935 – 939
Language
English
Abstract
Mechanized sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) harvest results in stem-free fruit, raising concerns over their storability.
In 2007, we evaluated postharvest weight loss of Bing and Skeena fruit with and without pedicels.
The entire fruit surface and/or pedicels were sealed with petroleum jelly (PJ) to form a barrier to water loss. Six treatments were compared for both cultivars: 1) no PJ, with stem, 2) no PJ, stem-free, 3) pedicel and fruit sealed with PJ, 4) pedicel treated with PJ, 5) fruit surface sealed with PJ, and 6) stem-free fruit with PJ applied to abscission zone.
At harvest, individual fruit were labeled, weighed, placed into modified atmosphere packaging, and stored at 4°C for three weeks.
Every 3 to 4 days, replicate sets of fruit were removed from storage and analyzed for weight and quality attributes.
Untreated, stem-free, Bing, lost significantly more weight (9.2%) than stemmed Bing (6.5%) over the storage period.
In contrast, weight loss from stem-free and stemmed Skeena fruit was not different (7.8 vs. 8.7%, respectively). For both cultivars, coating the pedicel or coating the stem scar on stemless fruits did not significantly reduce weight loss compared to control treatment. However, coating the pedicel and the fruit or the fruit of stemless cherries significantly and similarly reduced weight loss for both cultivars mean weight loss was 1.5 and 0.5% for Bing and Skeena, respectively.
These results demonstrate that weight loss occurs predominantly via the fruit exocarp and not the pedicel.
Furthermore, we recorded a subtle increase in Bing pedicel-fruit retention force throughout storage, a trend that was not observed for Skeena. Static dye uptake experiments using basic fuchsin (0.1%) revealed no uptake into pedicels from either the stylar or stem end of Bing fruit.
In contrast, we observed dye uptake into the pedicel from stylar end immersion of Skeena fruit.
Implications of these results for storability of mechanically-harvested stem-free fruit are discussed.
In 2007, we evaluated postharvest weight loss of Bing and Skeena fruit with and without pedicels.
The entire fruit surface and/or pedicels were sealed with petroleum jelly (PJ) to form a barrier to water loss. Six treatments were compared for both cultivars: 1) no PJ, with stem, 2) no PJ, stem-free, 3) pedicel and fruit sealed with PJ, 4) pedicel treated with PJ, 5) fruit surface sealed with PJ, and 6) stem-free fruit with PJ applied to abscission zone.
At harvest, individual fruit were labeled, weighed, placed into modified atmosphere packaging, and stored at 4°C for three weeks.
Every 3 to 4 days, replicate sets of fruit were removed from storage and analyzed for weight and quality attributes.
Untreated, stem-free, Bing, lost significantly more weight (9.2%) than stemmed Bing (6.5%) over the storage period.
In contrast, weight loss from stem-free and stemmed Skeena fruit was not different (7.8 vs. 8.7%, respectively). For both cultivars, coating the pedicel or coating the stem scar on stemless fruits did not significantly reduce weight loss compared to control treatment. However, coating the pedicel and the fruit or the fruit of stemless cherries significantly and similarly reduced weight loss for both cultivars mean weight loss was 1.5 and 0.5% for Bing and Skeena, respectively.
These results demonstrate that weight loss occurs predominantly via the fruit exocarp and not the pedicel.
Furthermore, we recorded a subtle increase in Bing pedicel-fruit retention force throughout storage, a trend that was not observed for Skeena. Static dye uptake experiments using basic fuchsin (0.1%) revealed no uptake into pedicels from either the stylar or stem end of Bing fruit.
In contrast, we observed dye uptake into the pedicel from stylar end immersion of Skeena fruit.
Implications of these results for storability of mechanically-harvested stem-free fruit are discussed.
Publication
Authors
E.D. Smith, M.D. Whiting
Keywords
Prunus avium, fruit quality, mechanical harvest, modified atmosphere packaging
Online Articles (170)