Storage and Quality of Apples ‘Reinette Simirenko’, Depending on the Dose of Post-Harvest Treatment with Ethylene Inhibitor 1-MCP

Abstract

Natural weight losses, flesh and core browning, senescent breakdown and fruit rot, ethylene-production, firmness, soluble solids content, titratable acidity and taste of apple ‘Reinette Simirenko’ during storage, depending on the dose of postharvest treatment with 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) were studied. Fruits were collected in harvesting maturity and treated with 1-MCP at the recommended dose of 1000 ppb (SmartFreshTM 0.068 g·m−3) and experimental doses of 750 ppb (75% of the recommended dose) and 500 ppb (50%). Apples were stored at 2 ± 1 °C and air humidity 85–90%. After seven months of cold storage, irrespective of dose of 1-MCP, on the 20th day of shelf-life, ethylene production from the treated apples was 3.9–5.3 times lower than that of the untreated ones. During the seven months of storage, fruits with post-harvest treatment had high firmness – 8.8–9.0 kg without a significant difference in range of 500–1000 ppb 1-MCP. 1-MCP treatment provides 0.6–1.0% higher content of soluble solids (highest level is for the treatment of 750 and 1000 ppb). Content of titratable acidity was higher by 1.4–1.7 times (the highest acidity was at 1000 ppb and, respectively, 1.1 and 1.2 times lower when treated with doses of 750 and 500 ppb). There was no skin browning and senescent breakdown and no flesh browning at 750 and 1000 ppb, and no fruit rot at 1000 ppb. When smaller doses (as recommended) are applied, a more harmonious taste of apples without reducing storage ability is achieved.

The impact of 1‐MCP treatment and controlled atmosphere storage on the postharvest performance of four ( Chaenomeles japonica (Thunb.) Lindl. ex Spach) fruit cultivars

“…Regarding apple fruit, if the harvest time is delayed, the firmness of the fruit decreases (Shafiq et al., 2011); however, the percentage loss during storage to be cultivar and storage technology dependent (Juhņeviča‐Radenkova & Radenkovs, 2016a; Radenkovs & Juhnevica‐Radenkova, 2018). A positive effect of 1‐MCP on flesh firmness of apple (Melnyk et al., 2019), pear (Mahajan et al., 2010), cherry tomato (Taye et al., 2019), and many other fruit and vegetables has been broadly documented. Moreover, affirmative results were also reported on CA storage for apple (Juhņeviča‐Radenkova & Radenkovs, 2016b), pear (de Martin et al., 2017) medlar (Selcuk & Erkan, 2015), and lemon (Ma et al., 2019) fruit.…”

Effect of Sustainable Preharvest and Postharvest Techniques on Quality and Storability of High-Acidity ‘Reinette du Canada’ Apple

“…The level of senescent breakdown at the end of storage in the control fruit for 'Orchard 2 was similar to the results found by Wang and Sugar [49] for pear cv. 'Bartlett' (38.3%), by Wang and Sugar [50] for 'Doyenne du Comice' after 4 and 6 months, respectively, of cold storage in air plus 5 days of ripening or by Melnyk et al [17], who found losses of 44.4% in apple cv. 'Reinette Simirenko' after seven months of storage due to senescent breakdown.…”

“…Some authors claim that almost all pre-harvest factors that influence the incidence of bitter pit in apple fruit can be directly or indirectly related to the fruit's calcium nutrition [11]. Senescent breakdown is also due to a nutritional disorder in the orchard [12], but other key factors contribute to the outbreak of this disorder, such as tree age, pruning, fruit maturity, fruit size, storage temperature and storage period [12][13][14][15]; therefore, after long storage periods, and after simulated shelf life, these disorders limit the storage length up to 5-6 months [14,16,17].…”