Postharvest quality of 'Granny Smith' apple grown under photo-selective red net

Abstract

The present study was conducted with aim to test the effect of red photo-selective nets (Agritech S.r.l., Eboly, Italy) on 'Granny Smith' apple postharvest quality. The fruits have been harvested on optimal harvest date from orchard near city of Zadar where red photo-selective nets were used. Afterwards fruits were stored in regular air storage at 0°C for 4 months and then kept for 7 days at room temperature (shelf life). After harvest, cold storage and shelf life fruits grown under red net had significantly lower total soluble solid (SSC) content. After cold storage, superficial scald index and share of fruits with strong and very strong superficial scald severity were significantly higher in fruits grown under red net while for share of fruits with low superficial scald severity situation was opposite. After shelf life, fruits grown under red net had significantly higher titratable acidity (TA), but lower weight loss and SSC/TA ratio. It can be concluded that, due to greater susceptibility to superficial scald, prevention measures (optimal harvest time, 1-MCP and CA storage) should be applied when red photo-selective net is used on superficial scald-susceptible apple varieties.

Sustainable Food Production: Innovative Netting Concepts and Their Mode of Action on Fruit Crops

“…The effect of net application on the fruit size of different fruit species has been extensively studied; however, results are diverse, probably due to the variability of agroecological conditions, net properties, fruit species, varieties, etc. Generally, in most cases, the application of nets caused, fully or partly (depending on fruit variety and net type), an increase in fruit size or mass [5,16,22,25,32,39,[58][59][60][61]116]. Only Bosco et al [4] reported a fully negative impact, while, in other studies, this impact was not recorded [26,43,117], was mixed (positive and negative), or could not be assessed due to lack of a control group (open-field conditions) [19,21,54,57,118].…”

“…Accordingly, there are conflicting reports regarding shading's influence on fruit firmness. Similarly, there is no general consistency between studies regarding net influence on fruit firmness of apples [4,19,26,32,42,57,59,109,116,124,154], peaches [8,16,61,125], or other fruit species [5,21]. Therefore, other possible mechanisms should also be taken into account.…”

“…Sweetness, a fruit quality trait that is crucial for customer satisfaction with the product, is most often obtained by a refractometer, which measures the content of total soluble solids (TSS) in the fruit juice [151,155]. Generally, the application of nets achieved negative or no effect on TSS in apples [4,26,32,42,[57][58][59][60]90,116,124,154], peaches and nectarines [16,61,125], blueberries [25,31], or lemons [54]. In only one study, TSS levels in kiwifruit were lower in natural conditions than under nets [21], while, in a few studies, the net effect could not be assessed, due to lack of a control group (natural conditions) [8,19,118].…”

“…Although the effect of net application on fruit acidity has been extensively studied, results are not consistent. In the majority of studies, positive or negative effects of net application on fruit acidity were mixed, with a lack of significant difference (depending on the net type, variety, or year) [4,21,42,58,60,109,154], while, in some, no effect at all was reported [16,32,54,59,90,116]. In one study [124], the application of nets caused a reduction, while, in another [125], an increase in TA in fruit.…”

Generative and Vegetative Traits of the 'Granny Smith' Apple Grown under an Anti-Insect Photoselective Red Net

“…Also, it should be further noted that there is a lack of studies that deal with an effect of photoselective nets on the apples' bioactive compounds. In our previous studies, the red photoselective anti-insect net exerted a satisfactory pre-harvest effect on the ´Cripps Pink´ apple, ´Sugar Time´ peach, and the ´Big Bang´ nectarine (Brkljača et al, 2016;Vuković et al, 2016), an optimum effect on post-harvest performance of the ´Granny Smith´ apple (Vuković et al, 2020), and the satisfactory pest control properties (Pajač Živković et al, 2016(Pajač Živković et al, , 2018. Consequently, the present work is an extension to our previous studies.…”