IS RIPENING AND POST HARVEST QUALITY OF HASS AVOCADOS AFFECTED BY FRUIT WATER STATUS?

SUMMARY Fruit placed into storage delayed longer than 48 hours after picking have a significant increase in ripe rots. This is thought to be due to the delayed fruit being at a more advanced physiological stage of ripening after storage. Our working hypothesis was that high rates of water loss before storage affected fruit quality. Imbibing fruit with water had the opposite effect of water loss slowing down ripening. As the amount of water imbibed could be considered as a measure of fruit water status experiments were conducted to investigate if the fruit water status or changes in fruit water status were affecting ripe fruit quality. Fruit water status was increased after rain or by irrigation but the effect on ripening times differed depending on how the fruit water status was changed or maintained. Irrigation would be expected to keep fruit water status at a higher level while rain causes large rapid changes in fruit water status. Minor changes in fruit water status over the course of a day had little effect on ripening times. The amount of sound fruit when ripe depended on ripening times. The water loss or infusion at the inhibition stage of ripening had the most effect of fruit quality.