Preliminary Results of Fruit Quality of Eight Croatian Local Apple Cultivars

The quality of the eight local apple cultivars (‘Alvanija’, ‘Kardinal’, ‘Kri ara’, ‘Majdofija’, ‘Mu katnica’, ‘Slastica’, ‘Slatka sr ika’ and ‘Punika’) was studied. Cultivar ‘Kardinal’ had the highest fruit mass, and the cultivar ‘Slastica’ had the lowest. There was no significant difference in fruit mass between the cultivars ‘Kardinal’ and ‘Majdofi ja’. Cultivar ‘Alvanija’ had the highest fruit height and cultivar ‘Kri ara’ had the smallest. Cultivar ‘Kardinal’ had the widest fruits, and cultivar ‘Kri ara’ had the narrowest. Cultivar ‘Alvanija’ had the highest shape index, and cultivars ‘Kri ara’ and ‘Majdofija’ had the lowest. The highest firmness had cultivars ‘Majdofija’ and ‘Slastica’, between which there was no statistically significant difference. Cultivars ‘Kardinal’, ‘Kri ara’ and ‘Punika’ had significantly lower fruit firmness but still significantly higher than cultivar ‘Mu katnica’. Cultivar ‘Slastica’ had the highest soluble solids content, and cultivar ‘Kri ara’ had the lowest. Cultivar ‘Kri ara’ received significantly lower panelist score for crispness, texture and juiciness than cultivar ‘Majdofija’.Cultivars ‘Kardinal’ and ‘Majdofi ja’ received better scores for taste attributes than other cultivars. Panelist scores for fruit shape and general impression were the highest for the cultivars ‘Kardinal’ and ‘Madofija’. There was no significant difference in panelist scores for fruit size between these cultivars and cultivars ‘Alvanija’ and ‘Kri ara’. It was concluded that the most promising cultivars are ‘Majdofija’ and ‘Kardinal’.However, to fully evaluate their potential, comparison with other cultivars in the standard growing conditions during long-term research is needed.