The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Checklists for improved apricot quality Clyde: Jill Stanley, Ross Marshall, Christina Ful...
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Checklists for improved apricot quality Clyde: Jill Stanley, Ross Marshall, Christina Fullerton, Elizabeth Campbell Mt Albert: Ringo Feng, Shane Olsson, Yingfei Cao, Feryal Varasteh, Amy Paisley, Anne White, Mary Petley, Allan Woolf
Acknowledgments Orchards & fruit • Harry Roberts • Ian Nichol et al., Summerfruit Orchards • Kevin Paulin, Alpine Packhouse MA bags • Brent Rogers, Future Fresh Ltd • Summerfruit Orchards Statistical advice • Peter Alspach: statistics advice The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Consumers Always remember the consumer has the last word (first word) Consumer trial • 8 Treatments • 2 cultivars (Clutha Gold & Vulcan) x • 2 crop loads (Low & High) x • 2 maturity classes (M2 & M3)
• 24 consumers The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Soluble solids concentration 17 Low crop load
16
High crop load
SSC (%)
15 14 13 12 11
10 M2
M3
Clutha Gold
M2
M3
Vulcan The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Dry matter concentration 17 Low crop load
16
High crop load
DMC (%)
15 14 13 12 11
10 M2
M3
Clutha Gold
M2
M3
Vulcan The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Liking score Like more
8 Low crop load
Liking score
7
Like less
*
High crop load
6
5
4 Clutha Gold
Vulcan The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Liking score
Like more
6 Clutha Gold
Vulcan
Liking score
5.8
Like less
5.6 5.4 5.2 5 8
9
10
11
12
13
14
SSC (%) The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
15
Is the consumer prepared to pay a higher price?
Pay more
Prepared to pay more
4
Not pay more
*
Low crop load
Clutha Gold
Vulcan
High crop load
3
2
1
0 The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Key points: consumers • Consumers preferred fruit from lower crop loads • Consumers preferred fruit with higher SSC
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Winter Pruning Ensure good light penetration into all parts of the canopy Be prepared to make big cuts to remove large branches which are “cluttering” the canopy You should have sunflecks right into the middle of the canopy
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Percent full sunlight Clutha Gold Centre Leader
Genevieve Multi Leader
66
48
70
58
56
46
43
27
33
32
30
35
48
24
27
21
19
16
31
18
20
18
14
12
Fruit weight Clutha Gold Centre Leader
Genevieve Multi Leader
81g
76g
75g
76g
Soluble solids concentration Clutha Gold Centre Leader
Genevieve Multi Leader
15.0%
15.9%
13.9%
15.0%
Dry matter concentration Clutha Gold Centre Leader
Genevieve Multi Leader
14.8%
16.6%
13.9%
15.8%
Mealiness score Maturity class 2
Clutha Gold Centre Leader
Genevieve Multi Leader
0.31
0.19
0.29
0.17
0.50
0.29
0.36
0.14
Maturity class 3
Key points: canopy position • Lower canopy: Low light, smaller fruit & lower SSC & DMC • Upper canopy: higher light, larger fruit & higher SSC & DMC. Very mature fruit is more prone to postharvest disorders
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Fruit Thinning Ensure you thin the trees to medium crop load Reducing fruit numbers too much will reduce the yield to unacceptable levels Treat each tree individually, considering it’s girth and canopy size
Yield Yield (tonnes per ha)
25 20 15 10 5 0
0
2 4 6 Crop load (fruit per cm2 TCA)
8
Mean fruit weight Mean fruit weight (g)
100
Harvest 1 Harvest 2
95
Harvest 3
90 85 80 0
2 4 6 Crop load (fruit per cm2 TCA)
8
Fruit quality at harvest 13
SSC (%)
12
11
10 Harvest 1
Harvest 2
4.8 Flesh firmness (kgf)
13
DMC (%)
Harvest 3
12
11
4.6 4.4 4.2 4 3.8 3.6
10 Harvest 1
Harvest 2
Harvest 3
Harvest 1
Harvest 2
Harvest 3
Soluble solids concentration after storage 13.5
Low crop load Medium crop load High crop load
13.4
SSC (%)
13.3 13.2 13.1 13.0 12.9 12.8
65
75
85
95
Fruit size (g) The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
105
Mealiness score 0.45
Mealiness score
More mealy
Less mealy
Low crop load
Medium crop load
0.40
High crop load
0.35
0.30
0.25 65
75
85 Fruit size (g)
95
105
Key points: crop load • Low crop load: • • • • •
fruit were larger yield was lower Higher SSC than high crop load smaller fruit had higher SSC fruit of all sizes had few postharvest disorders
• Fruit from the first harvest were smaller but had higher SSC & DMC (most likely fruit from high light parts of the tree)
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Harvesting: Fruit maturity issues Tighten up on range of fruit maturities that pickers are harvesting Ideally harvest fruit between flesh firmness of 3.5 to 5.5kgf (maturity class 2) Get pickers to leave greener fruit, particularly if it is small
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Flesh firmness M2
M1
M3
7
At harvest or immediately after storage
Flesh firmness (kgf)
6
After 4 days shelf-life at 20C
5 4 3 2 1 0 0
10
20
30
40
50
0
10
20
30
Days from harvest
40
50 0
10
20
30
40
50
Soluble solids concentration M2
M1
18
M3
17
SSC (%)
16 15 14
12
At harvest or immediately after storage
11
After 4 days shelf-life at 20C
13
10 0
10
20
30
40
50
0
10
20
30
40
Days from harvest
50
0
10
20
30
40
50
Mealiness Score
More mealy
M1
M2
M3
1.2
At harvest or immediately after storage
Mealiness score
1.0
After 4 days shelf-life at 20C
0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2
0.0 0
Less mealy
10
20
30
40
50 0
10
20
30
40
Days from harvest
50 0
10
20
30
40
50
Commercially-packed 5kg box 30 fruit sample 20
Clutha Gold H2
10
0
0
2
4
5
No fruit
6
8
No fruit
10
15
Cluthagold H1
1
2
3
4
5
Flesh firmness (kgf)
6
7
8
1
2
3
4
5
Flesh firmness (kgf)
6
7
8
Key points: maturity at harvest • Fruit harvested at 6kgf or more: didn’t soften properly, low SSC, few postharvest disorders • Fruit harvested at 4 to 5.5kgf: intermediate SSC and postharvest disorders. Best for longer storage. • Fruit harvested at 3 to 4kg firmness had highest SSC. Good if storing for a short time The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Coolstore Keep coolstores as close to 0°C as possible Use dataloggers to monitor their performance Move dataloggers to different positions in the coolstore
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Commercial coolstore: bin store
9°C
4°C 2°C
0°C
14 Jan
31 Jan
One degree makes a difference Genevieve
Clutha Gold
3.5
3.0 4 week day 3 4 week day 6
2.5
2.5
2.0
2.0
1.5
1.5
1.0
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.0
-1
0
1 -1 Storage temperature (°C)
0
1
0.0
Flesh firmness (kgf)
Flesh firmness (kgf)
3.0
3.5
All MA bags resulted in firmer fruit (assessed on Genevieve apricots after 4 weeks storage at 0oC and 4 days shelf life at 20oC)
Flesh firmness (kgf)
3.0
Ethylene Sachet No Sachet
2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0
B
C
K MA bags
P
Control
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Some MA bags and ethylene sachet reduced disorders Incidence of disordered fruit (%)
(assessed on Genevieve apricots after 4 weeks storage at 0oC and 4 days shelf life at 20oC)
60 Ethylene Sachet No Sachet
50 40 30 20 10 0
B
C
K MA bags
P
Control
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Key points: coolstore • Keeping fruit at 0°C will improve fruit quality • There is potential for the right MA packaging to increase storage life
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Checklists for improved apricot quality • Winter pruning: • improve light into lower canopy
• Thinning: • Thin to medium crop load; treat each tree individually
• Harvesting: • Aim for fruit between 3.5 and 5.5kgf
• Coolstoring: • hold coolstores as close to 0°C as possible The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
Remember to listen to the consumers www.plantandfood.com
The New Zealand Institute for Plant & Food Research Limited
