Improvement of fruit quality and storage potential of ‘Braeburn’ apple through deficit irrigation

Abstract

SummaryWe explored the potential of deficit irrigation (DI) applied at different times during the growing season for improving fruit quality and storage potential of ‘Braeburn’ apple growing in a commercial orchard. Because DI often reduces fruit size, effects of fruit size on fruit quality were also examined. The irrigation treatments were: commercially irrigated control (C), early deficit irrigation (EDI) applied from 63 to 118 d after full bloom (DAFB), and late decifit irrigation (LDI) applied from 118 DAFB to final harvest on 201 DAFB. Both EDI and LDI improved fruit quality in terms of increases in: dry-matter concentration (DMC) at harvest, flesh firmness, total soluble solids, and total soluble sugars both at harvest and after storage. The DI fruit had less weight loss during storage than did C fruit. Deficit irrigation affected the concentrations of a few individual aroma volatiles but not total volatile concentration. Incidence of physiological disorders was not affected by irrigation treatments. Mean fruit weight was lower in DI than in C but the difference was not significant. Among the quality attributes studied, only firmness and DMC were affected by fruit size with their values being higher in smaller fruit.