Abstract
The use of plant growth regulators that increase ethylene production is a common strategy to anticipate fruit ripening, increase peel color, and reduce the number of collections to complete the harvest of the fruits. Besides, this strategy may come true as a helping technique for the farmers to reduce costs with manpower, increasing overall profitability. This work aimed to evaluate the application of several concentrations of ethephon, associated with boric acid, on the anticipation of ripening of ‘Fortune’ plums, cultivated in Serra Gaúcha region, South Brazil. The study was carried out in a commercial orchard during the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 harvests. It was used a completely randomized design with six treatments and four replicates; each replicate was composed of four plants. The following parameters were evaluated: the amount of fruits collected in each harvest, average fruit mass, diameter, length, firmness, soluble solids content, titratable acidity, SS/TA ratio, total phenolic compounds, and total anthocyanins. According to the results, the application of ethephon was capable of hastening and homogenizing partially plum ripening, but it also caused a reduction of anthocyanin and phenolic compounds contents and fruit firmness. On the other hand, the application of boric acid increased fruit firmness. From an economic standpoint, the pre-harvest application of ethephon may be interesting to reduce manpower requirements during harvest by an earlier harvest and by reducing the number of harvest cycles.
Highlights
The Japanese plum (Prunus salicina), native to China, is destined mainly for in natura consumption, being highly appreciated by its taste and nutritional properties
During vegetative growth two green prunings were performed, the first 72 days after complete flowering and the second soon after harvesting to eliminate vigorous branches. It was carried out haul fertilization through canopy projection area; the amount of fertilizer was calculated based on soil and plant tissue analysis
About 37.92% of the fruits were harvested in ethephon-treated plants, whereas only 4.65% were collected in the control. These results indicated an eight-fold increase of fruit collection in ethephon treatments relative to the control and boric acid-only treatments
Summary
The Japanese plum (Prunus salicina), native to China, is destined mainly for in natura consumption, being highly appreciated by its taste and nutritional properties. Plums are rich in anthocyanins, which give the fruit its characteristic color, and whose contents vary according to the cultivars (Roussos et al, 2016). World plum production is concentrated in China, corresponding to 17% of total world production (6.78 million tonnes), followed by Romania and the USA. In Brazil, about 64,000 t are produced each year in 4,415 ha of acreage (Kleina et al, 2019). The region of South Brazil, composed of the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Paraná, highlights itself, in which plums are cultivated between the end of October and February (IBGE, 2017)
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