EVALUATION THE EFFECTS OF HARVEST STAGE AND SOME POSTHARVEST TREATMENTS ON QUALITY OF BEACH FRUIT CV. "Dixired" DURING COLD STORAGE

Abstract

The fruits source of this study was a commercial orchard of peach Dixired
cv. located at Sartang village in Semel- Duhok- Kurdistan Region-Iraq, during
growing season (2012). Harvested fruit transferred to central laboratory of
Agriculture College - Duhok University, to study the effect of harvest stage (first
harvest stage at35% red color and second harvest stage at 75% red color) and
dipped in water at room temperature (24˚C) as control, 45, 55˚C and 2% fungicide
(Bravo) for two minutes then stored in cold storage at 0±1˚C and 85-90% RH for
25 and 55 days period on quality of peach fruit during cold storage. The results
revealed that peach fruit harvested at second harvest stage had significantly lower
fruit firmness, titratable acidity, higher vitamin C, total sugar, juice % and decay
as compared with first harvest stage. Peach fruit dipped at 45 and 55˚C hot water
recorded significantly the higher weight loss in compression with control; fruit of
postharvest treatment had a significant increase in fruit firmness total acidity and
decrease in fruit decay compared to control. Fruit dipped in hot water at 55˚Cand
2% fungicide had a significant increase in fruit vitamin C and total sugar content.
The interaction between factors under the study had significantly positive effect
on most storage characteristic especially fruit firmness, TA, vitamin C, and decay.