Storage potential of new kiwifruit selections under different storage scenarios

One of the challenges for accelerating the breeding of new kiwifruit cultivars is to evaluate the storage potential of a large number of selections under a range of storage conditions using small numbers of fruit. This study evaluated how storage life assessed under one set of conditions can be generalised to estimate the storage life under another set of conditions. Results indicated that: (1) mathematical modelling using initial firmness at harvest measured using an Aweta acoustic firmness sensor was needed to compare the storage life of genotypes harvested at different maturities (a practical issue when there are insufficient fruit for monitoring pre-harvest fruit maturation); (2) ranking among genotypes for softening rate was consistent under all treatment conditions tested (air storage, controlled atmosphere, ethylene treatment and 1-MCP treatment); (3) fruit softening rate evaluated in air storage was sufficient to select/reject individual selections.