FRUIT PHYSICO-CHEMICAL QUALITY PARAMETERS OF NEW INTRODUCED APPLE CULTIVARS

Abstract

The apple fruit is the second most frequently consumed, after bananas and some quality characteristics like size, gloss, color, and aroma influenced directly the flesh consumption. In this study, the external (weight, size, skin colour) and internal (firmness, total soluble solids, acidity, pH) fruit quality attributes were measured experimentally before the storage, using well defined techniques. 'Corelita', 'Coreal', 'Corealor', 'Coredova', 'Corejuno', 'Coretard', 'Coreagat', 'Coreor' and 'Coreprim' cultivars were registered, in the last 15 years, by Practical Scientific Institute of Horticulture and Food Technologies Chișinău, Republic of Moldova, as scab resistant varieties. The orchard trial was established at the Research Institute for Fruit Growing Pitesti, Romania in the spring 2014 on MM106 rootstock, at the spacing of 3.5 x 2 m and fruit samples were analyzed in 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons. All studied cultivars were harvested before 'Florina' cv., used as control. Fruit weight was quite variable among genotypes, between 115.15 g at 'Coreal' cv. and 212.41 g at 'Corejuno', and most of the cultivars had smaller fruits than 'Florina' cv. Firmness and total soluble solids varied from 70.5 to 82.61 N and 12.77 to 16.77%Brix. The Hunter color values L, a, b, were found to be in the range of 46.12 to 56.76, - 6.46 to 14, 13.75 to 23.72, respectively. The data about the external and internal fruit quality of new Moldavian scab resistant apple cultivars are useful for growers, in order to introduce in the new orchards only cultivars with high quality fruits.