%0 Journal Article
%T Nectarine Fruit Ripening and Quality Assessed Using the Index of Absorbance Difference ( )
%A E. Bonora
%A D. Stefanelli
%A G. Costa
%J International Journal of Agronomy
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/242461
%X Consistency of fruit quality is extremely important in horticulture. Fruit growth and quality in nectarine are affected by fruit position in the canopy, related to the tree shape. The ¡°open shaped¡± training systems, such as Tatura Trellis, improve fruit growth and quality. The Index of Absorbance Difference ( ) is a new marker that characterizes climacteric fruit during ripening. A study on fruit ripening was performed by using the on nectarine to monitor fruit maturity stages of two cultivars trained as Tatura Trellis in Victoria, Australia. Fruit of cv ¡°Summer Flare 34¡± (¡°SF34¡±) grown in different positions on the tree showed high ripening homogeneity. Fruit harvested at a similar ripening stage showed fruit firmness and soluble solid content homogeneity. Fruits from hand-thinned variety ¡°Summer Flare 26¡± (¡°SF26¡±) were larger in size, had advanced ripening, and showed greater homogeneity. For ¡°SF26¡±, a weak correlation between and SSC was observed. The experiment showed that the Tatura Trellis training system is characterized by high homogeneity of nectarine fruit when coupled with a proper management of fruit density. It also confirmed that the could be used as new nondestructive maturity index for nectarine fruit quality assessment in the field. 1. Introduction A tree training system is defined as a method of manipulating the tree structure and canopy geometry to improve the interception and distribution of light, for the purpose of optimizing fruit quality and yield [1]. In 1970, a group of Australian researchers developed the Tatura Trellis [2], suitable for the complete mechanization of harvest in intensive peach orchards. Despite of the higher light available and photosynthetic rate that this tree shape allows, it was judged too expensive because of the intensive work needed to maintain the complex scaffold. Keeping the same open canopy design, simplified and cheaper tree shapes were developed during the following decades, such as the ¡°KAC V¡± [3] and ¡°Y¡± [1]. Several aspects of the Tatura Trellis training system on apple and cherry trees were studied [4], but only a few experiments on tree productivity were available regarding peach fruit [5]. Numerous studies on different tree architectures pointed out that fruit position in the canopy represents one of the most critical factors for peach fruit quality development and homogeneity of fruit characteristics [6¨C8] related to the light availability [9]. The open center training systems increase the light available in the inner canopy, giving rise to a gradient of quality traits. Fruit that develops
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ija/2013/242461/