STUDIES ON THE EVOLUTION OF APPLE FRUITS QUALITY DURING THE PRESERVATION PERIOD IN COLD STORAGE FACILITIES

Abstract

The apple fruits harvest maturity is very brief and does not coincide with the consumption maturity. The process of ripening continues after fruit harvesting, and the consumption maturity is achieved earlier or later in the storage period. Present paper highlights the evolution of some apples characteristics (penetration resistance, chlorophyll fluorescence), in the storage period,the characteristics that define the quality fruits consumption. The study was carried out at the Research Institute for Fruit Growing Pitesti-Maracineni where the fruits of two apples varieties ('Dalinred', and 'Goldrush') that have been harvested in October and stored in cold storage. After four months of storage (January) and after five months of storage (February), determinations of penetration resistance and chlorophyll fluorescence were carried out. The results obtained have shown that penetration resistance of the 'Goldrush' fruits variety in January had higher values than penetration resistance of the 'Dalinred' fruits variety and the values of resistance decrease with increasing storage period. Regarding chlorophyll fluorescence, the values have the same tendency as well as those of penetration resistance, a small decreasing of values, with the increasing storage period. Both, the penetration resistance values as well as the chlorophyll fluorescence values, proved a good duration for maintaining fruit quality, and the decreasing values in the two periods of determination (January and February), was insignificant