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Effect of canopy position on
apricot fruit quality
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Jill Stanley, Ross Marshall, Claire Scofield
The
New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research
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Introduction & Objective
• Apricots delivered to consumers show a huge amount of
variation in quality, ranging from those that are unripe and have
little flavour through to those that are over-soft (Bruhn et al.,
1991). Some of this variation may be due to different fruit
quality among positions within trees.
• Apricots have been reported to be larger and have higher
soluble solids concentration (SSC) in canopy positions
exposed to more light (Lichou et al., 1999), but no data were
presented to support this conclusion.
• There is little known about the effect of canopy position on
postharvest storage of apricots
• The aim of this trial was to identify the effect of canopy
position on apricot fruit quality.
Materials and Methods
• Monitored three blocks of ‘CluthaGold’ apricot trees:
•One centre-leader & two multi-leader (vase)
• Collected fruit from 8 different positions within trees at 3 harvest
times and measured fruit weight and soluble solids concentration
• Also collected two fruit from each position that were at commercial
maturity, stored for 3 weeks at 0oC then held at 20oC for 4 days.
Mealiness was assessed by 3 trained panellists.
• The proportion of light interception reaching each canopy position
was recorded by taking instantaneous measurements of
photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) within the canopy and
simultaneously measuring PAR above the canopy.
Dry matter concentration (%)
11
12
13
11
Soluble solids concentration (%)
9
10
R²=0.72
P<0.001
R²=0.74
P<0.001
10
55
60
R²=0.65
P=0.02
Centre leader
Multi leader 1
Multi leader 2
B
8
Fresh weight (g)
65
70
75
Fresh weight (g)
80
A
Soluble solids concentration (%)
Fig. 1. Relationship between light transmission and fresh weight (A)
or soluble solids content (B) in three ‘CluthaGold’ apricot orchards.
85
Results
30
40
50
60
70
Light transmission (% ambient
30
40
50
60
70
30
40
50
60
Light interception
(% full
sunlight)
photosynthetically
active
radiation)
• Light transmission into apricot canopies was lowest (1 to 23%) in the lower inner canopy
positions, particularly for the multi-leader trees (data not presented)
• There were significant relationships between light transmission and fruit fresh weight (Fig.
1A) and between light transmission and fruit soluble solids concentration (Fig. 1B).
70
Results
System P<0.001
FF
P<0.001
H x FF P=0.001
B
2
2.5
Height P=0.002
FF
P<0.001
H x FF P=0.01
A
1.5
Upper
Lower
SE
Centre-leader
Multi-leader
SE
1
Mealiness
Mealiness score
score
• These results differ from peach.
Peach fruit from the upper canopy
exhibited longer shelf-life capacity
than from lower light canopy
positions because of reduced
mealiness and internal browning
(Cristosto et al., 1997)
Very
mealy
0.5
• If fruit were soft, those from the
upper canopy were mealier than
those from the lower canopy
(P=0.01) (Fig. 2A) and those from
centre-leader trees were mealier
than those from multi-leader trees
(P=0.001) (Fig. 2B)
Fig. 2. Relationship between flesh firmness and mealiness score (from 0
(not mealy) to 3 (very mealy)) of ‘CluthaGold’ apricots collected from 3
harvests and assessed after 3 weeks at 0oC and 4 days at 20oC ,harvested
from A) upper or lower canopy positions and B) centre-leader or multileader trees.
Not
mealy
0
• When fruit were firm after cold
storage and shelf-life, there was no
difference in mealiness between
canopy positions (Fig. 2A) or
between canopy types (Fig. 2B)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0
10
Flesh firmness (N)
20
30
40
50
60
Conclusions
• Fruit in higher light positions of the canopy were larger and had higher soluble solids
concentrations
• Post-storage mealiness increased when fruit were softer and were from higher light positions
or from centre-leader trees
• Short-term management solutions to improve apricot fruit quality include:
• Increase light penetration into the lower canopy positions by more intensive
pruning and/or by the use of reflective material on the ground
• Selective thinning to retain more fruit in high light positions and reduce numbers of
fruit in lower light positions
• Manage harvest and storage protocols to ensure fruit do not become too soft when
reaching the consumer
• Longer-term solutions include:
• Redesigning orchard systems using different rootstocks and training systems to
maximise light penetration into the tree canopy
• Breeding new cultivars that have larger fruit that have higher soluble solids
concentrations at commercial harvest, and have good storage capability.
Selected references
Bruhn CM, Feldman N, Garlitz C, Harwood J, Ivans E, Marshall M, Riley A, Thurber D,
Williamson E 1991. Consumer perceptions of quality - apricots, cantaloupes,
peaches, pears, strawberries, and tomatoes. J. Food Quality 14:187-195.
Crisosto CH, Johnson RS, DeJong T, Day KR 1997. Orchard factors affecting
postharvest stone fruit quality. HortScience 32(5):820-823.
Bruhn CM, Feldman N, Garlitz C, Harwood J, Ivans E, Marshall M, Riley A, Thurber D,
Williamson E 1991. Consumer perceptions of quality - apricots, cantaloupes,
peaches, pears, strawberries, and tomatoes. Journal of Food Quality 14(3): 187-195.
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and
Employment (Contract number C06X0806).
Thanks to Peter Alspach for statistical advice.
Thanks to H & J Roberts, Summerfruit Orchards Ltd and J Taylors for supplying the fruit.