Fruit Quality and Flavor Compounds Before and After Commercial Harvest of the Late-Ripening ‘Fairtime’ Peach Cultivar

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Abstract
In this work quality of tree ripe and commercial ripe ‘Fairtime’ peach fruit was evaluated during fruit maturation and storage. Quality parameters and volatile fraction were monitored at intervals of 7-15 days from pit hardening until 10 days after commercial harvest and after 7, 17 and 24 days of refrigeration. In fruit on the tree, weight increased quadratically, diameter and peel color increased linearly, whereas flesh firmness decreased linearly. Soluble solids (SS) reached maximum levels at commercial harvest, whereas acidity started declining after commercial harvest. In the peel, esters and alcohols showed opposite trends. In the flesh, alcohols decreased quadratically and disappeared in tree ripe fruit. In refrigerated fruit, there were no significant weight changes, flesh firmness decreased linearly, SS reached a minimum around the 10th day, and acidity decreased quadratically. A three day harvest delay followed by two weeks of refrigeration may represent a chance to further extend marketing of optimum flavor ‘Fairtime’ peaches into late fall.

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