Internal quality of ‘Valencia’ orange fruit as influenced by tree fruit position and winter girdling

Abstract

During the 1999 season the internal quality of ‘Valencia Late’ orange was investigated with regard to fruit position and exposure in the canopy and the effects of winter girdling of branches. Fruit at shoulder height from northern and southern exposed positions were sampled during maturation. Fruit from eastern and western exposed positions were sampled on the crown while shaded fruit were sampled from bottom, inner canopy positions. Fruit from exposed canopy positions generally had higher soluble solids concentrations (SSC) although no real differences were found for kg SSC t−1. Girdling of branches late in the season did not improve SSC. Quadratic trends were best fitted to the data in this study indicating an increase of SSC over the season, peaking and then decreasing.