QUALITY CHANGES OF CHINESE JUJUBE FROM DEFICIT IRRIGATION STORED IN CONTROLLED ATMOSPHERE

The severe drought in the southeast Spanish Mediterranean agricultural ecosystems, has led to the implementation of deficit irrigation strategies (DI). In this work the effect of combined DI and controlled atmosphere (CA) storage on the quality parameters and shelf-life of Chinese jujube (Ziziphus jujube) was studied. Three different irrigation treatments were applied during the fruit production: control (T₀), trees watered at 112.34% of crop evapotranspiration (ET₀), half irrigation (T₁), trees irrigated at 64.19 % of ET₀, and no irrigation (T₂), were no irrigation was applied. Harvested fruit were stored for 37 days at 5°C and 90% RH under 5 kPa O₂ + 10 kPa CO₂ followed by a simulated retail sale period of 5 days at 15°C in air. At the end of CA storage and shelf-life period, the soluble solids content (SSC), pH, titratable acidity (TA), color parameters, size, weight loss and decay development were determined. As expected, the T2 fruits at harvest showed the smallest size. After CA storage T₂ fruits showed the highest SSC and TA levels. After retail sale no noticeable differences in color among treatments were found. As main conclusion, T₂ fruits showed the best overall quality and the lowest weight loss and decay (about 5%) after both CA storage and shelf-life while saving 2128.4 m³ ha^-1 compared to the ones that received regular irrigation. However, the size of these fruits was lower than in control. As far as we know, the combined effects of DI and CA on quality parameters of jujube fruits are first reported here. However, more research should be conducted in order to optimize the overall Chinese jujube quality, while saving great irrigation water amounts at the same time.