The effects of physical and chemical changes on the optimum harvest maturity in some avocado cultivars

The aim of this study was to determine physical and chemical changes during fruit development and their relationship with optimum harvest maturity for Bacon, Fuerte and Zutano avocado cultivars grownunder Dörtyol ecological condition. Fruits cv. Bacon, Fuerte and Zutano were obtained trees grafted on seedlings and planted 5 m x 6 m in Dörtyol Research Station of Faculty of Agriculture, Mustafa KemalUniversity. Fruit width and length, weight, skin and flesh color (L* and hue), total soluble solid (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), TSS/TA, fruit flesh firmness, juice pH, dry weight and oil content were measuredon fruits samples collected from tagged trees from June drop to ripening at a 15 days interval during fruit development. Data indicated that oil and dry matter content, flesh firmness and fruit weight were important criteria in determining optimum harvest maturity. Based on the all criteria, the period from the end of November to middle of December was the optimum harvest time for these cultivars in order to deliver fruit at optimum commercial maturity and quality and to obtain adequate storage time

The effects of citrus rootstocks on Valencia Late and Rhode Red Valencia oranges for some plant nutrient elements

In citrus production, the rootstocks utilization is beneficial for solving the problems caused by soil, climates, pests and diseases as well as achieving higher productivity and quality, earlier and later fruitproductions. Therefore, citrus producer almost exclusively utilizes rootstocks. The major rootstock of Turkish citrus production is sour orange while trifoliate, Troyer and Carrizo citranges are utilized aswell. In this study, we determined the rootstock effects on some plant nutrient element status of Rhode Red Valencia and Valencia Late oranges budded on sour orange, Troyer and Carrizo citranges in 2004and 2005. Our results were similar in both experimental years with few expectations. The nutrient status of the two orange cultivars tested significantly differed from K and Ca concentrations in both years.However, all cultivars mean were within the range of optimal limits except Zn. The rootstock had significantly different means for all elements tested in both years. We demonstrated that the citrusrootstocks had different abilities to utilize plant nutrient elements. For N, K, Mg, Mn and Cu, Carrizo citrange has the highest means while Troyer and sour orange have the highest concentrations for P andFe, and Ca, Zn and Na, respectively. We recommend utilizations of Carrizo and Troyer citrange rootstocks for eastern Mediterranean region citrus production as they had higher ability to utilize manyplant nutrient elements playing important roles in productivity and quality