‘Kordia’ sweet cherry fruit quality as function of the rootstock and storage conditions

Abstract

Sweet cherry fruit of the cultivar ‘Kordia’ derived from trees growing on the GiSelA 5®, Colt and Mazzard F12/1 rootstocks were harvested at the stage of consumption maturity and stored for three weeks in control atmosphere – CA (20% CO2 and 3% O2, RH 90%, 2 ±0.5°C), modified atmosphere packaging – MAP (2–4% CO2, 13–18% O2, 2°C ± 0.5°C) and air atmosphere – AA (RH 80%, 2 ±0.5°C). The rootstocks had a significant effect on all tested fruit quality parameters directly after harvest, except for respiration rate in the first year and fruit titratable acidity in the second year of the study. After sweet cherry storage, the influence of the rootstock on most of fruit quality parameters was proven. The GiSelA 5® rootstock contributed to the preservation of high firmness, high soluble solids content and high soluble solids content/titratable acidity (SSC/TA) ratio. MAP retained good fruit quality, although more favorable quality parameters were recorded after sweet cherry storage in CA, especially with regard to such features as fruit firmness, low respiration rate, small mass loss, low percentage of fungal diseases and good preservation of green color of the stem.