HUANG Zhanwen, WANG Ying, LI Mingjuan, YOU Xiangrong, ZHANG Yayuan, ZHOU Kui, WEI Ping, WEI Linyan
The ‘Longtan’ pearl plum was collected at five harvest stages to explore the effects of harvest maturity on the fruit quality characteristics of ‘Longtan’ pearl plum. The results showed that with the increase of the harvest maturity, the good fruit rate, water content, juice yield, L* and b* of a pericarp, sensory score of crispness and juiciness, TA, hardness, chewiness, springiness and cohesiveness were reduced. Besides, the whole harvest period decreased by 66.67%, 4.52%, 11.62%, 12.28%, 62.10%, 36.86%, 15.86%, 23.94%, 75.68%, 79.77%, 15.12%, 8.33%, respectively. The a* of pericarp, a* and b* of pulp, sensory score of appearance and sweetness, TSS, SSC, pH, TSS/TA and SSC/TA were increased, and the whole harvest period increased by 56.32%, 725.39%, 31.54%, 108.51%, 85.80%, 41.70%, 83.87%, 4.87%, 85.31%, 143.68%, respectively. Moreover, the single fruit weight, the sensory score of sourness, total sensory score and Vc content increased first and then decreased. The values were the highest in the Ⅳ, Ⅲ, Ⅲ,Ⅱ harvest maturity respectively, which were 18.25 g, 16.13 points, 89.20 points and 6.25 mg/100g, respectively. The results provided a reference for different purposes to select the appropriate harvest maturity of ‘Longtan’ pearl plum.