Postharvest response of purple passion fruits (Passiflora edulis f. edulis Sims) grown under controlled fertilization
The purple passion fruit is an important species in the international market, but basic knowledge on fruit quality is scarce.
This study contributes to gain knowledge about fertilization in order to improve gulupa fruit quality.
Three stages of maturity (green, semi-ripe and mature fruits) and five fertilization treatments (0, 25, 50, 100, and 150% of the doses considered optimal) were tested.
The measured quality traits included peel color, epicarp hardness, soluble solids, titratable acidity, peel thickness, maturity index, fruit respiration, and citric, malic, ascorbic and oxalic acid contents.
The two main components of the principal component analysis (PCA) established the main source of variation.
The first axis was associated with fruit maturity.
More mature fruit were mostly associated with soluble solids, hue angle and maturity index and less mature with hardness, thickness, skin lightness and skin chroma index.
The second axis was mainly associated with fertilization treatments and was mainly influenced by organic acids and titratable acidity.
A MANOVA confirmed the principal effects of the maturity stage and fertilization on the selected variables.
Skin chroma and hardness are proposed for further studies on stage of maturity at harvest while malic acid can be a good index for fertilization doses.
Flechas, N.C., Melgarejo, L.M., Hernández, M.S. and Fernández-Trujillo, J.P. (2020). Postharvest response of purple passion fruits (Passiflora edulis f. edulis Sims) grown under controlled fertilization. Acta Hortic. 1275, 99-104
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2020.1275.14
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2020.1275.14
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2020.1275.14
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2020.1275.14
fruit quality traits, preharvest, ripening, organic acids
English