Nectarine Fruit Ripening and Quality Assessed Using the Index of Absorbance Difference (IAD)

Abstract

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 ( AD ) is a new marker that characterizes climacteric fruit during ripening. A study on fruit ripening was performed by using the AD 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 AD 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 AD could be used as new nondestructive maturity index for nectarine fruit quality assessment in the field.

Non-destructive Assessment of Highbush Blueberry Fruit Maturity Parameters and Anthocyanins by Using a Visible/Near Infrared (vis/NIR) Spectroscopy Device: A Preliminary Approach

“…Few years ago, extensive research has been focused on the development of non-destructive techniques for evaluating fruit ripening (Ziosi et al, 2008;Guidetti et al 2009;Infante et al, 2011;Bonora et al, 2013Bonora et al, , 2014Bonora et al, , 2015. In this way, some technologies operating on visible and near infrared (vis/NIR) spectroscopy can allow checking in real-time the ripening progress of fruits (Bonora et al, 2013), monitoring the physiological changes of a great number of fruits with a high precision.…”

“…In this way, some technologies operating on visible and near infrared (vis/NIR) spectroscopy can allow checking in real-time the ripening progress of fruits (Bonora et al, 2013), monitoring the physiological changes of a great number of fruits with a high precision. Interestingly, reflectance-spectroscopy-based techniques have been successfully used for the detection of anthocyanins in fruits including grape clusters (Tuccio et al, 2011).…”

“…Despite the interesting advances about this topic, the use of vis/NIR spectrophotometry to non-destructively for the in-situ estimation of blueberry fruit maturity and quality has been scarcely explored (Guidetti et al, 2009 (Ziosi et al, 2008;Bonora et al, 2013Bonora et al, , 2014Nagpala et al 2013). The I AD has been recognized as a potential suitable harvest index to in-situ monitoring fruit maturation in some cultivars of peaches (Bonora et al, 2013(Bonora et al, , 2014(Bonora et al, , 2015, plums (Infante et al, 2011), and apples (Nyasordzi et al, 2013), among others fruit species.…”

“…The I AD has been recognized as a potential suitable harvest index to in-situ monitoring fruit maturation in some cultivars of peaches (Bonora et al, 2013(Bonora et al, , 2014(Bonora et al, , 2015, plums (Infante et al, 2011), and apples (Nyasordzi et al, 2013), among others fruit species. Lately, this device has been recently tested for the prediction of cherry maturity through the estimation of fruit skin anthocyanin, with very promising results (Nagpala et al, 2013).…”

Studies of tropical fruit ripening using three different spectroscopic techniques

“…8 Based on the vis-NIR spectroscopy, a simple and easy to perform measurement method, the "index of absorbance difference (I AD )" technique that strongly correlates with the chlorophyll content and the ethylene production of fruits, was introduced for nectarine and peach fruits. [9][10][11] However, this method cannot provide the precise days for the fruit ripening stage. Furthermore, it cannot differentiate the ripeness stage from the maturity of the fruits.…”