New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science abstracts
Fruit quality in `Nijisseiki' Asian pear under deficit irrigation: physical
attributes, sugar and mineral content, and development of flesh spot decay
M. HOSSEIN BEHBOUDIAN
G. STEPHEN LAWES
Department of Plant Science
Massey University
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Abstract Responses of Asian pear (Pyrus serotina Rehd.
`Nijisseiki') to water stress were studied to obtain information that may be
useful in irrigation management. Stress was applied to plants, by replacing 50%
of their evapotranspiration (ET) loss, at either of two stages of growth. Stage
1 (early stress) coincided with slow fruit growth and rapid vegetative growth
and Stage 2 (late stress) was from 3 weeks before harvest. Fruit water
potential decreased in stressed treatments compared to the control. Osmotic
adjustment occurred only in early-stressed fruit. Fruit concentration of N, P,
K, Ca, and Mg decreased during the early stress period. Water stress did not
affect the concentration of N, P, K, and Mg in fruit, but tended to reduce Ca
in early-stressed fruit. The latter had a higher concentration of sucrose,
glucose, fructose, and sorbitol than non-stressed fruit after 35 days
treatment. There was no consistent effect in late-stressed fruit. Water stress
did not influence fruit yield, size, or soluble solids. Fruit weight was
significantly reduced in the late-stress treatment compared with the control.
Early-stressed fruit tended to have higher flesh spot decay although it was
reduced in the late-stress treatment.
Keywords Asian pear; nashi; fruit quality; Pyrus
serotina; soluble sugars; water stress
New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science, 1994, Vol. 22:
393-400
0114-0671/94/2204-0393 $2.50/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
1994
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (556K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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