Relationship between Rind Surface Morphology and Sugar Concentration in the Juice of Satsuma Mandarin Fruit

Abstract

Assigning numerical values to rind of satsuma mandarin as roughness value with an image analyzer, the changes in values during fruit growth were examined. The roughness value decreased gradually proportionately to fruit growth and development, but the rate of reduction depended significantly on crop load of the tress. In high crop load (leaf-fruit ratio; 50). Significant differences in values between high and low crop load were observed during September and November. Juice sampled from July to December showed that the sugar concentration had a reverse sigmoid curve compared to the roughness value and that sucrose accumulation was especially repressed in the fruits with coarse surfaces. Similar tendencies were found among fruits on trees with a conventional crop load (leaf-fruit ratio ?? 25) at harvest. Rind of satsuma mandarin fruit, thus, is closely reeated to sugar concentra-tion in pre-and mature fruits.