Identifying Harvest Maturity Indices for Five Cultivars of Gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa) Fruit

Abstract

Abstract This report quantifies the variation in fruit physio-chemical characteristics of five cultivars of gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa).Each cultivar was completely harvested when 20% of the fruit on a bush were evaluated to be ripe. Harvest dates varied from 15 June (‘Rokula’) to 8 July for ‘Greenfinch’. ‘Invicta’ gave the largest fruit but was the least sweet, ‘Leveller’ had the smallest fruit and ‘Greenfinch’ the sweetest. Fruit color changed with fruit size, especially for the red cultivars, ‘Rokula’ and ‘Pax’. However, fruit size was not a good indicator of fruit sweetness. Selecting fruit on the basis of firmness and color rather than fruit size was a more accurate indicator of fruit sweetness and therefore consumer acceptability. Further investigation is required to determine quantifiable thresholds in terms of color, sweetness and/or firmness whereby a gooseberry is considered acceptable to the consumer as a fresh dessert fruit. The thresholds are likely to be specific to the cultivar.