Physical and chemical analyzes to identify harvest point in peach
Ana C. R. Krolow, Dori E. Nava, Márcia Vizzotto, Núbia M. L. Ferri, Maicon Bisognin. Embrapa
Clima Temperado, BR 392, Km 78, Caixa Postal 403, CEP 96010-971, Pelotas, RS, Brazil.
The peach is one of the most produced fruit in Rio Grande do Sul, being one of the 18 fruits that
are in the Quintais Orgânicos de Frutas project of Embrapa Clima Temperado/CGTEE. One of
the difficulties of the fruit harvest is related to the indicative parameters of the time to harvest
which is done, actually, by the fruit colour. Were evalueted, weekly between november/2011
and january/2012, the total soluble solids (ºBrix), the pH and the acidity, of two peach cultivars:
Granada (early cycle) and Eldorado (average cycle). It is observed that in the Granada cultivar,
there was a significant difference in the ºBrix (8.2) only in the first week of fruit development,
there was no difference in the course of development and ripening of fruits, whose variation was
9.3 to 9.8. For the Eldorado cultivar, there was no significant difference in ºBrix between the first
(3.7), second (7.58) and ninth (13.8) weeks of the development and ripening of fruits, with no
differences between the intermediate weeks to these ones, whose variation was between 10.2
and 12.7. In relation to pH, there was no significant difference between treatments for both
cultivars. In acidity evaluation, there was only significant difference between the second and
sixth weeks to Granada’s cultivar and to Eldorado cultivar’s the difference only ocurred between
the second and ninth week. We conclude, based on these assessments, the ºBrix, pH and
acidity are not a good parameter to identify the point of ripening in Granada’s and Eldorado’s
peach cultivars.