Possibility of sorting asymptomatic peach fruit, by DA-meter, that will show different brown rot incidence during storage

The DA-meter is a hand-held instrument developed from vis/NIR spectroscopy that measures the index of absorbance difference (IAD) correlated with the flesh chlorophyll-? content of fruit. It was used to divide in two different ripening classes, class I (climacteric peak) and class II (onset of climacteric), harvested fruit belonging to three peach cultivars. At harvest and after 6 days of storage at 20°C, quality parameters such as flesh firmness (FF), soluble solid contents (SSC), ethylene emission and brown rot incidence were evaluated. Data on ethylene production reported a different emission of phytormone at harvest relating to peach variety and among the two IAD classes. In addition, the IAD values showed a high correlation with FF, while SSC being ethylene-independent did not show marked differences between ripening stages. With respect to brown rot, after 3 days of shelf-life, data from artificial infections, revealed a lesion diameter significantly larger on fruits of class I (10 and 13 mm) than those on class II (8 and 9 mm) for ‘Springbelle’ and ‘Redhaven’, respectively. Similarly, in all trials, the incidence of Monilinia rots in fruit natural infected was significantly higher within class I compare to class II. The present work showed the possibility of sorting asymptomatic fruit, harvested at a commercial maturity, by DA-meter, into two IAD classes that will show different brown rot incidence during storage. SourceAn innovative use of DA-meter for peach fruit postharvest managementA. Spadoni (a), I. Cameldi (a), M. Noferini (b), E.Bonora (b), G. Costa (b) & M. Mari (a)(a) CRIOF—Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Bologna, Via Fanin 46, 40127 Bologna, Italy(b) Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Bologna, Via Fanin 46, 40127 Bologna, ItalyScientia Horticulturae, Volume 201, 30 March 2016, Pages 140-144