New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science abstracts
Asparagus: variation amongst plants in susceptibility to the postharvest
disorder, tip breakdown
R. E. LILL1
B. TOMKINS2
G. J. van der MESPEL1
1Levin Research Centre
New Zealand Institute for Crop & Food
Research Limited
Private Bag 4005
Levin, New Zealand
2Institute for Horticultural Development
Department of Agriculture, Victoria
Private Bag 15
South Eastern Mail Centre
Victoria 3176, Australia
Abstract Tip breakdown is a serious postharvest disorder of
asparagus (
Asparagus officinalis) which can result in severe wastage and
quality loss. We report significant variation amongst plants in their
susceptibility to this disorder. This variation may be genetic in origin, but
the results presented are equivocal on this. Plants with low levels of tip
breakdown had higher levels of soluble carbohydrate in spear tips than plants
susceptible to the disorder. Protein levels and postharvest accumulation of
ammonia were not significantly different in plants with low levels of tip
breakdown compared to plants with high levels. The possibilities for selecting
resistant plants are discussed.
Keywords asparagus; Asparagus officinalis; storage
disorder; tip breakdown; genetic variation; carbohydrate; protein; ammonia
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (300K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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