earticle

영어

Persimmons on the trees are often exposed to weather condition of cold temperature before harvest, which affects the fruit quality at harvest time and later storage. This study investigated the effect of the harvest season temperature on the storage quality of ‘Fuyu’ sweet persimmons. Monitoring the temperature changes in the orchard showed five times of cold temperature below the freezing temperature of persimmon, -2.1oC, in the harvesting period between mid October and mid November with the lowest being as low as -5.4oC. Among three different harvestings, the tertiary one at mid November showed decreased ‘L’ value and consistently high ‘a’ value of color index and high reduction in hardness during 150 days storage of fruits at 0oC showing freeze-injured symptoms, compared to the first one at mid October and the second one at early November. The fruits of first harvest maintained consistently hard texture with increased ‘a’ color value probably due to postharvest ripening. The tertiary harvest exhibited increase in fructose and glucose contents and decrease in sucrose of the fruits, being very different from the first and secondary harvests which maintained constant level of all three free sugars. Mid November with possible sudden temperature drop is unsuitable period for harvesting sweet persimmons in the quality at harvest and later storage, and thus the harvest should be designed to be done before that time.