PRELIMINARY STUDY ON NON-DESTRUCTIVE ASSESSMENT OF EUROPEAN PLUM (PRUNUS DOMESTICA L.) MATURITY

Plum maturity is usually assessed by destructive methods in the laboratory. The determination of harvest date and quality factors of European plum is poorly studied but needs to be as accurate as possible. Thus, for precision agriculture or continuous following of plum maturation, more rapid and non-destructive methods are needed. Therefore, in addition to measurements of fruit color, a new optical method was recently proposed. It is based on the estimation of the screening of chlorophyll fluorescence by flavonols and anthocyanins accumulating in the fruit skin. This allows to indirectly quantifying these phenolics in the skin of intact fruit. Here, we present the first results obtained with the commercial device Multiplex on two European plum Prunus domestica L. cultivars ‘Haganta’ and ‘Hoh4517’ during the 2010 season. A good correlation between fruit development and non-destructive detection of these pigments by this device was found. The relation between the Multiplex anthocyanin index and fruit development may give a useful tool for following plum fruit maturation and, thus, for a more rapid and precise determination of harvest date.