Characterization of cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana L.) fruits from plants irrigated with different regimens and calcium doses

Abstract

Cape gooseberry fruits have positioned in the world market due to their excellent nutritional characteristics, because they are an ideal food that contributes to raising the defenses of the human body and helps it to face diseases such as COVID-19, they are also a natural source of antioxidants and anticancer agents. In order to avoid the physiopathy of cracking in cape gooseberry fruits, these were characterized at harvest time, coming from greenhouse plants irrigated with different applications of water levels and irrigation frequencies, as well as different calcium doses, in a design of randomized complete blocks with 12 treatments. The blocks were the irrigation frequencies (4, 9 and 14 days), while the treatments were the combination of four irrigation coefficients (0.7, 0.9, 1.1 and 1.3 of the evaporation of the tank class A) and three doses of calcium (0, 50 and 100 kg ha-1). The plants were sown in 20 L pots with peat moss substrate. Fruits were harvested at the color stage 5 and 6 of the calyx, from 19 weeks after transplanting. The different water levels and irrigation frequencies did not significantly affect the firmness of the cape gooseberry fruits, but there was a strong tendency that cracked gooseberry fruits are less firm than healthy fruits. As the irrigation coefficient increased, the total soluble solids (TSS) increased while the total titratable acids (TTA) decreased. Irrigation frequency of 14 days generated fruits with higher TSS and pH values. The calcium doses did not affect the calcium concentration in the fruits or the TSS, TTA and pH values. Therefore, it can be concluded that incremented irrigation coefficients (up to 1.3) increase the quality of cape gooseberry fruits.

Effect of calcium on fruit quality: A review

“…Ribeiro et al (2020) report that the preharvest application of 4% CaCl 2 decreases TTA in guava fruits. In other studies, the application of Ca through fertilization does not affect TTA values in gooseberry fruits (Álvarez-Herrera et al, 2022) and blueberries . pH During ripening, fruit filling occurs mainly by symport, in which H + plays an important role, as they are part of substrates such as glucose and sucrose.…”

“…Furthermore, Thakur et al (2019) mention that the application of CaCl 2 decreases the amount of TSS by 20%, 12.6%, and 9.34% compared to the control in papaya, melon, and guava fruits, respectively, after 20 d of storage. However, in some fruits, the application of calcium does not affect the TSS concentration, such as apples (Fallahi & Mahdavi, 2020), blueberries , and cape gooseberry (Álvarez-Herrera et al, 2022).…”

“…Consequently, the concentration of H + at the vacuolar level decreases, and the pH increases slightly. Therefore, it is likely that the application of Ca slows down the decrease in pH by decreasing respiratory and fruit metabolism, minimizing the oxidation processes of organic acids (Álvarez-Herrera et al, 2022). Thakur et al (2019) mention that the application of 2% CaCl 2 in papaya, melon, and guava maintain higher pH values in fruits (4.15, 4.48, and 3.85, respectively) at the end of storage (20 DAH) compared to the control (3.80, 4.05, and 2.30, respectively).…”