Abstract:

This experiment was conducted to study the effect of harvest period on fruit quality of ‘Huangguan’ pear and to reveal the growth regulation of the fruit quality factors during late fruit development, thus determining the best harvest period of ‘Huangguan’ pear in production. ‘Huangguan’ pear was used as test material, the fruit weight, soluble solid, Vc and pulp hardness at different harvest periods were measured. The composition and content of sugar and acid in fruits at different harvest periods were measured by liquid chromatography. These data were used to analyze the relationship between fruit quality factors at the later stage of fruit development and different harvest periods of ‘Huangguan’ pear. The results showed that the pulp hardness decreased significantly and the soluble solid content increased with the delay of harvest period from 106 days of fruit development, and the soluble solid content reached the peak at 137 days of fruit development. The change of Vc content was insignificant, and it was only significantly high at 120 days. Fructose was the main sugar in the fruits harvested at the near maturity stage, accounting for 70.09%-84.00%, which was the highest at 137 days of fruit development. Malic acid was the main acid in the fruit, accounting for 93.05%-97.28% of the total acid, and malic acid D accounted for 82.92%-91.84% of malic acid. With the delay of harvest time and the extension of fruit development days, the content of fruit acid decreased. The later the harvest period, the higher the sugar acid ratio was. During 130-137 days of fruit development of ‘Huangguan’ pear, the contents of soluble solids, fructose, glucose, sucrose and Vc in the fruit are relatively high, the sugar acid ratio and pulp hardness are appropriate. The suitable harvest period to obtain the best quality of ‘Huangguan’ pear is August 8-15.

Key words: harvest period, ‘Huangguan’ pear, fruit, quality