Top fruit processors, while more tolerant of appearance, also seek good quality fruit. They are more interested in the ripeness, nutritional value, colour, texture, flavor type (dessert or culinary), and quality of the fruit, including, level of acidity, and TSS (total soluble solids), mainly sugars.
Improving Top Fruit Quality
The majority of top fruit worldwide are grown for the fresh market. Taste, size, shape and skin colouration are of major importance to the retailer and consumer who are demanding increasingly higher top fruit quality, right throughout the year.
Fruit quality, for both fresh fruit and processing markets, is closely related to the ripening stage of a fruit. Timing of harvest is critical. Growers need to ensure fruit is at the right stage and will not deteriorate in storage. Fruit that is too immature will be starchy and have poor aroma. Over-ripe fruit will be more susceptible to storage diseases and breakdown.
Healthy top fruits are also less susceptible to develop bitter pit, lenticel blotch incidence and water core. An unhealthy crop will not meet the expectation of the consumer and will be rejected in the market. It will therefore reduce grower’s income and be a waste of resource. A top fruit crop which is not in a healthy condition can develop internal breakdown, sunscald/sunburn and alfalfa greening.
It can also have poorer defense mechanisms and less tolerance against fungi, insects and abiotic stress, affecting the overall crop growth and quality.
Crop nutrition is essential to ensure nutrients don’t limit apple and pear fruit quality.
Find Yara Advice on Every Top Fruit Quality Issue
Improving Top Fruit Colouration
Colour of the skin is a very appealing apple and pear fruit quality to consumers. Therefore, growers generally seek to improve fruit colouration.
Increasing Top Fruit Firmness
Over-use or late applications of nitrogen reduces apple firmness, potentially resulting in more damage in transit and storage.
Managing the Sugar/Acid Ratio in Top Fruit
Top fruit flavor and taste are related to the level of soluble solids in the fruit, which are mainly sugars.
Calcium and Pear Quality
Calcium is critical in pears, and fruit concentrations need to be double that acceptable for apple.
Reducing Bitter Pit Incidence in Top Fruit
Bitter pit is a physiological disorder associated with low levels of calcium in the top fruit tissue, which reduces top fruit quality and marketability.
Reducing Lenticel Blotch Incidence in Top Fruit
Lenticel blotch is associated with hot summers, late harvests and excessive use of nitrogen.
Reducing Water Core Occurrence in Top Fruit
Water core develops in mature top fruit when the sugar sorbitol is translocated into the fruit faster than it can be assimilated.
Minimizing Top Fruit Internal Breakdown
Internal breakdown in top fruit is the breakdown of internal tissues resulting from fluid oxidation.
Avoiding Top Fruit Sunscald/Sunburn
Sunscald or sunburn in top fruit accounts for yellow or flushed areas on the fruit skin due to direct sun damage often following a period of cooler, cloudy weather.
Decreasing Alfalfa Greening Occurrence in Top Fruit
Alfalfa greening is a disorder which causes dark-green, slightly sunken spots on the skin of pears.