Preliminary results regarding maintaining of the quality after harvesting of the apricots

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to establish the influence of variety and storage conditionson the preserving capacityafter harvesting of the apricots.The paper presents the results obtained in 2016 on quality maintaining of the apricots. There were studied two Romanian varieties of apricots, created from Research Station for Fruit Growing (R.S.F.G) Constanta -Mamaia and Olimp. Apricotswere kept at Research and Development Institute for Processing and Marketing of the Horticultural Products Bucharest, in different technologicalconditions: ambient temperature (20-22ºC); temperature of 10-12° C (refrigerated conditions), with and without modified atmosphere and temperature of 3-5ºC (cold storage). The initial level and the evolution during storage of the firmness of the fruits and of the main biochemical components: soluble dry matter, soluble carbohydrates, titratable acidity and vitamin C were determined. After storage determinations were performed on the total losses, quantitative losses (expressed by evaporate-transpiration) and qualitative depreciations. The results revealed the fact that, in general the apricotswere sensitive to storage, the maximum storage duration being 5-20 days, depending on the storage conditions. The two main problems were represented by the mass losses, which caused the wrinkle of the fruist and the injuries, which mostly affected the appearance and the consumption quality. The losses by impairment were between 0 to 22.5%, depending on the variety, conditions and duration of storage. Thedepreciationof the apricots during storage was caused in most cases by the attack and the development of diseases (Botrytis, Penicillium, Phytophthora etc), which have spread rapidly in the fruit mass.The apricots of Mamaia variety were more resistant to storingthan Olimp variety, which degraded faster and more than the others. The most favorable conditions for the maintaining of the quality have been shown to be temperature of 10-12° C (refrigerated conditions), with modified atmosphere(5% CO2-enriched), in which apricots have recorded, after 20 days of storage, quantitative losses of less than 0.5% and losses by impairment of 0-2.78%, depending on variety.