Susceptibility of pear to bruising after harvest and storage

Abstract

World production of pear occupies the second place after apple among pomes species of moderate climate. So far, production in Poland has been low, due to unfavourable climatic conditions, greater sensitivity of pear trees and flowers to frosts and frosts. Serious problems include storage, quick pear maturation, and high susceptibility to fruit bruising during handling. The attractiveness of pears is determined not only by their texture and colour, firmness, juicy flesh, but also by taste, aroma and nutritional value. The aim of the research was to determine and compare the susceptibility of the ‘Conference’ and ‘Lukasówka’ varieties, popular on our market, as well as the new varieties ‘Concord’ and ‘Amfora’, to fruit bruising. In the impact test applied in this study, a 25.68 g glass ball was dropped from a height of 20, 40 and 80 cm, obtaining energy of 0.5, 0.1 and 0.2 J. The impact method allows assessing the susceptibility of pears to bruises and allows the comparison of varieties. The fruits of the ‘Conference’ and ‘Concorde’ varieties showed less susceptibility to damage. ‘Conference’, ‘Concorde’ and ‘Lukasówka’ pears maintained well their condition after storing for four months in a cold store at 1.5°C and about 90% humidity. When comparing the amount of bruising under the influence of 0.2 J impact energy, after storage it was observed that the determined volume of bruising of ‘Concorde’ fruit (312.47 mm 3 ) was more than three times smaller than the volume of ‘Amfora’ bruising (1075.13 mm 3 ). ‘Concorde’ variety is a promising variety, due to its low susceptibility to bruising and resistance to mechanical damage, and also the highest content of extract and sugars in fruits.

Keywords

• pears
• fruits
• bruising
• impact
• storage