Determination of The Harvesting Time of Hass Cultivar in Antalya Conditions

Abstract

Avocado cultivation in the world and Turkey, especially Hass cultivar, increases rapidly in recent years. The fruit quality of avocado is directly related to harvest maturity and post-harvest ripening process and the identification of maturity index has a very large commercial importance. For this purpose; in the fruit samples of Hass cultivar taken at 15-20 days interval from October to June, some fruit quality traits (dry matter, flesh firmness, weight loss, taste, colour of fruit skin and flesh) during the harvest and ripening process and relationships between of these parameters were analysed. As a result, it was found that the most reliable maturity index was the dry matter (DM) content and that there was a direct relationship between its accumulation and the harvesting time. In cases these index values were insufficient, the other postharvest analyses (taste, fruit skin colour, fruit hardness and weight loss) made a contribution to determination of maturity. During the ripening process, very high levels of a positive correlation between harvest time and dry matter (r= 0.92 to 0.96) was observed. According to the fruit maturity of the Hass cultivar, three different harvest periods were defined as early, optimum (most suitable) and late harvests. It was determined that from early October to late December as early harvest (23-25% DM), from January to late May as optimum harvest (26-37% DM), and from beginning to end of June as late harvest (≥38% DM).

Keywords

• Avocado
• Hass
• Maturity
• Ripening
• Harvest
• Harvest period

References

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