Effects of irrigation and fruit position on size, colour, firmness and sugar contents of fruits in a mid-late maturing peach cultivar

doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2013.09.048

Scientia Horticulturae

Volume 164, 17 December 2013, Pages 340-347

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2013.09.048 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Irrigation exerted a great influence on the majority of the traits studied.
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Sorbitol content affected by height (or location) of fruit in the crown.
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Sucrose and fructose contents were affected by orientation.
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Exposure to sunlight influenced soluble solid content.
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Significant correlations were detected among fruit attributes.

Abstract

Experiments were conducted on a mid-late maturing peach (Prunus persica) cv. ‘Catherine’ in 2008 in order to study the influences of irrigation and fruit location within the canopy, on fruit growth and several fruit-quality attributes, including sugar and acid contents. Trees were subjected to full irrigation (FI) and regulated deficit irrigation (RDI). Fruit height in the crown, exposure to sunlight and orientation were recorded. Fruit diameter, fresh weight, firmness, flesh and skin colour attributes, soluble solids content, pH and sugar and acid contents were determined for each fruit at harvest. Water stress had a high impact on most of the fruit-quality variables studied. Fruits from trees under RDI were firmer than those from FI trees but did not differ in weight and diameter, perhaps due to the low crop load supported by the studied trees. In contrast, fruits from RDI trees had more soluble solids, glucose, sorbitol, and malic, citric and tartaric acids. Height in the crown partially affected positively soluble solids content. Exposure to sunlight strongly influenced stone dry weight and soluble solid content. Finally, orientation did not have a significant influence on most of the fruit-quality attributes considered in this study. Our results suggested that leaving a low crop load on the tree maintaining fruits only in the most ideal parts of the canopy may improve fruit quality under water restriction conditions. In this way, the negative effects of water stress may be counteracted and fruit quality for this mid-late maturing peach cultivar would be improved.

Introduction

Peach trees (Prunus persica L. Bastch) are widely cultivated in Mediterranean countries, with the Murcia Region being the third leading peach producer in Spain with an annual yield of 162,000 tonnes of peaches from a cultivation area of 11,151 ha in 2010 (Magrama, 2011); these figures represent approximately 21% and 25% of the Spanish total peach production and cultivation area of peaches, respectively. Peaches, as fleshy fruits, are valued for their colour and taste; therefore, management practices leading to good-quality fruits with a high marketable value should be sought.

Peach flavour depends on its sugar and acid content ratio (Souty and André, 1975). Sucrose is the dominant sugar in peaches but reducing sugars (glucose and fructose) are also abundant (Génard and Souty, 1996). These sugars influence peach flavour along with the dominant organic acids, malic and citric (Souty and André, 1975).

However, fruit size and quality varies considerably within the tree (Wu et al., 2005, Alcobendas et al., 2012), showing that tree management can probably still be improved. The variability of fruit performance is related to factors such as light interception (Génard and Baret, 1994), crop load (Marini and Sowers, 1994) and pruning (Kumar et al., 2010). A major factor affecting fruit yield and quality is irrigation management, that controls water stress, whose effects on peach fruit yield and quality have been widely reported (e.g. Crisosto et al., 1994, Besset et al., 2001, Mercier et al., 2009, Lopez et al., 2011). Some studies reported cultural practices aiming to counteract the negative effects of water stress on fruit yield (Marsal et al., 2006). However, early and late-maturing peach cultivars seem to respond differently to water shortage (Naor et al., 2001, Girona et al., 2005, Buendía et al., 2008).

Fruit growth is correlated with several components of fruit quality (Génard and Bruchou, 1992) and all practices affecting this growth may exert an influence on fruit quality, since sugar partitioning is affected by source and sink growth (Lo Bianco et al., 2000). However, in this regard, results reported are contradictory. For instance, Corelli-Grappadelli and Coston (1991) observed smaller fruits at the distal end of fruiting shoots whereas Marini and Sowers (1994) did not detect differences in fruit size as a function of positions on the shoot. Bible and Singha (1993) observed redder and darker fruits in the upper side of the canopy than those in the lower side; showing the lack of uniformity and maturity in peach as a function of canopy position. Moreover, Lewallen and Marini (2003) observed that peach fruit firmness and colour were affected by light and fruit position within the canopy. In a previous study on an early-maturing peach cultivar, Alcobendas et al. (2012) found that fruit exposure to sunlight and position in the canopy affected fruits differently depending on the irrigation treatment.

However, these studies presented limitations such as considering only one or two factors, disregarding others, (Bible and Singha, 1993, Kumar et al., 2010) or they accounted only for fruits from the south side of the tree and the upper part of the canopy (Génard and Bruchou, 1992). In addition, fruit quality data in these studies was mainly centred on ground colour and total soluble solid content (Corelli-Grappadelli and Coston, 1991, Miranda Jiménez and Royo Díaz, 2002) and only a few studies reported data on sugar and acid concentration (Génard and Bruchou, 1992).

Consequently, a lack of knowledge on the effects on fruit quality and the interactions between irrigation and fruit position within the tree canopy still exists. Fruit distribution within the canopy may compensate for the negative effects of water stress on fruit size and quality (Alcobendas et al., 2012). This may have implications in horticultural practices since growers may be able to optimize fruit distribution within the canopy to obtain high peach quality and marketable yields.

Our objective was to investigate the effects of two types of irrigation (full and regulated deficit irrigation) and fruit position in the canopy (height in the crown, exposure to sunlight and orientation) on fruit growth (diameter, fresh weight, flesh weight and stone weight) and a number of quality attributes (colour, firmness, soluble solid content, pH and sugar and acid contents). Fruit quality is increasingly important (Crisosto and Costa, 2008), since it is emphasized by the new Common Organization of the Market (COM) of the European Union for fruit and vegetables. Thus, a low crop load was left in the studied trees in order to attain the maximum fruit-quality potential in the different locations within the canopy for this mid-late maturing peach cultivar. This was combined, with the use of an RDI strategy to determine its influence on fruit-quality attributes. RDI is often used for peach-tree culture in southeastern Spain due to water shortage.

Section snippets

Plant and fruit materials, irrigation treatments and experimental conditions

The study was carried out in 2008 on a 0.5 ha plot at a commercial orchard in Fuente Librilla, Murcia, Spain (37°55′ N, 1°25′ W, 360 m above sea level). The soil is sandy-loam textured (54.6% sand, 29.4% silt and 16% clay) and was classified as a Xeric Torriorthent (Soil Survey Staff, 2006). It is highly calcareous and possesses low organic matter (<1%) content and a pH of 8. The available water capacity is 0.31 m³ m⁻³. The climate of the region is semi-arid Mediterranean with hot and dry summers.

The

Results

Total ET₀ was 459.72 mm during the study period and its daily values fluctuated and increased from the beginning to the end of the study period. Total rainfall was low during fruit development (158.5 mm, 59.24% in stages I and II) and decreased during stage III. In contrast, mean air temperature increased during fruit development. During the experiment, mean daily maximum and minimum temperatures were 27.85 °C and 12.90 °C, respectively, and mean relative humidity was 57.7% (data not shown).

Midday

Discussion

In our conditions, irrigation strategies did not significantly affect fruit growth attributes such as diameter or fresh weight. A negligible percentage of fruits from the RDI treatment did not reach the marketable size, and high-grade fruits were common for both irrigation treatments (Fig. 1). These results are in disagreement with previous reports for other peach cultivars under different management conditions (Besset et al., 2001, Mercier et al., 2009, Lopez et al., 2010). This fact may be

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by IRRIQUAL (EU-FP6-FOOD-CT-2006-023120) and SIRRIMED (KBBE-2009-1-2-03, PROPOSAL N° 245159) projects. We are also grateful to two SENECA projects (05665/PI/07 and 11872/PI/09) and CONSOLIDER INGENIO 2010 (MEC CSD2006-0067) and CICYT (AGL2010-17553) projects for providing funds to finance this research. Dr. J.M. Mirás-Avalos thanks Xunta de Galicia for funding his contract within the framework of the Programme “Isidro Parga Pondal”.

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View full text

Effects of irrigation and fruit position on size, colour, firmness and sugar contents of fruits in a mid-late maturing peach cultivar

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Plant and fruit materials, irrigation treatments and experimental conditions

Results

Discussion

Acknowledgements

Sci. Hortic.

Sci. Hortic.

Ann. Bot.

Sci. Hortic.

Agric. Water Manage.

Sci. Hortic.

Sci. Hortic.

Sci. Hortic.

Estimation of hydraulic conductance within field-grown apricto using sap flow measurements

Plant Soil

Canopy position influences CIELAB coordinates of peach color

HortScience

Effect of regulated deficit irrigation and crop load on the antioxidant compounds of peaches

J. Agric. Food Chem.

Evaluation of sap flow and trunk diameter sensors for irrigation scheduling in early maturing peach trees

Tree Physiol.

Thinning pattern and light environment in peach tree canopies influence fruit quality

HortScience

Preharvest factors affecting peach quality

Irrigation regimes affect fruit soluble solids concentration and rate of water loss of ‘O’Henry’ peaches

HortScience

Ground color as a peach maturity index

J. Am. Soc. Hortic. Sci.

Deciduous fruit and nut trees

Spatial and temporal variation of light inside peach trees

J. Am. Soc. Hortic. Sci.

Correlations between sugar and acid content and peach growth

J. Hortic. Sci. Biotech.

Modeling the peach sugar contents in relation to fruit growth

J. Am. Soc. Hortic. Sci.