Elsevier

Scientia Horticulturae

Volume 81, Issue 4, 11 October 1999, Pages 425-436
Scientia Horticulturae

Quality of cactus pear [Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill.] fruit in relation to ripening time, CaCl2 pre-harvest sprays and storage conditions

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-4238(99)00027-8Get rights and content

Abstract

Post-harvest behaviour of summer and autumn ripening cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. Cactaceae) fruit cv. Gialla was investigated in relation to pre-harvest growing conditions, and CaCl2 applications. Summer ripening cactus pear fruit were stored for 5 weeks at 6°C and 90–95% relative humidity (RH), and 3 days at 20°C, 75% RH to simulate a marketing period (SMP). Autumn ripening fruits were kept under the same conditions for 7 weeks plus a SMP. Summer ripening cactus pear fruit were more susceptible to chilling injury and to weight loss, but less sensitive to decay than autumn fruit. CaCl2 delayed rind colour development and increased fruit resistance to decay but promoted susceptibility to chilling injury.

Introduction

The demand for cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. Cactaceae) fruit is increasing (Barbera et al., 1991) but the demand depends on the availability of high quality fruit. Mexico and Italy account for most of the world-wide production and export (Basile and Foti, 1996). The marketing season in Italy begins in mid-August with fruit coming from the spring flush (summer fruit) and lasts through November, due to late ripening fruit (autumn fruit) obtained through removal of the spring flush which promotes a second flush of flowers and cladodes (Barbera et al., 1992). Length (days) of the fruit ripening period (FDP) is significantly longer (2–3 weeks) for the autumn ripening than for summer ripening fruit. Summer fruit have a shorter duration of Stage III of their FDP, which is when the core develops most rapidly. Eventually, summer fruit are smaller than autumn ripening ones (Inglese et al., 1996). Moreover, the prevailing environmental conditions that occur during the development of summer and autumn fruits greatly differ in terms of radiation, day length, temperature, relative humidity (RH) and rainfall occurrence (Barbera et al., 1992). Summer fruit, during their growth, experience longer days and higher radiation as well as higher daily temperatures, lower RH and rainfall than autumn fruit (Inglese et al., 1996).

As with most tropical fruit species, cactus pear fruit is susceptible to chilling injury preventing low temperature storage. Without refrigeration, they deteriorate in a few days as a result of rapid ageing and rot development. Recommended storage conditions for cactus pears range from 6 to 8°C at 90–95% RH, depending on cultivar and harvesting period (Gorini et al., 1993) and extends the post-harvest life to 4–6 weeks. Pre-storage heat conditioning reduces chilling injury and rot occurrence of autumn ripening cactus pears (Schirra et al., 1996, Schirra et al., 1997a), while pre-harvest CaCl2 can reduce decay but enhance chilling injury after 6 weeks of storage at 6°C and 3 days of simulated marketing period (SMP) at 20°C (Schirra et al., 1997b). Pre-harvest conditions may affect post-harvest shelf life of fruit by influencing fruit metabolism and the development of fungal or bacterial related diseases (Monselise and Goren, 1987) and summer fruit have a shorter post-harvest shelf life than autumn fruit (Schirra et al., 1997a).

In this study we investigated the post-harvest behaviour of summer and autumn ripening cactus pear fruit in relation to pre-harvest growing conditions and CaCl2 spray.

Section snippets

Plant material, pre-harvest treatments

Cactus pear [O. ficus-indica (L.) Mill.] fruit cv. Gialla trees (15-year-old), located in a commercial orchard at San Cono, Sicily (37°22′ Lat. N) were used. Trees were fertilised with 90 kg ha−1 of N, 50 kg ha−1 of P, and 100 kg ha−1 of K, distributed in late spring, and were given 60 mm of water, at flowering and 30 and 45 days after flowering. All trees began to flower during the first week of June; at this stage, the spring flush of flowers and cladodes was removed from 25 trees to promote a

Results

Fruit from the spring flush began growth when the average daily (day/night) temperatures were 26/19°C, (Fig. 1) and most flesh growth (Stage III) occurred during August, when the average daily temperatures were 31/24°C, with peaks of 40/29°C. Fruit of the second flush began to grow during August (Fig. 2) and reached Stage III in October when temperatures (24/16°C) were the most favourable for cladode net CO2 uptake (Nobel, 1988). Summer fruit were harvested during the first week of September

Discussion

Storage behaviour of cactus pear fruit was greatly dependent on ripening time. Summer fruit showed little decay, whilst 50% of late autumn untreated fruit had clear evidence of decay. Fruit from the spring flush of flowers ripen in summer, under high temperature and low RH conditions, while autumn fruit ripen, when the rainy season begins and temperatures are lower, in conditions which are far more favourable for rot development (Granata, 1995). Monselise and Goren (1987)reported that fruit

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Mr Mario Mura for his valuable technical assistance in chemical analyses. The work was supported financially by MiRAAF Special grant: `Sviluppo e Miglioramento della Frutticoltura da Industria, della Frutticoltura da Consumo Fresco e dell'Agrumicoltura, Sottoprogetto 5, Tropicali e Subtropicali'.

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