Yield, earliness and fruit quality of pepino clones and their hybrids in the autumn-winter cycle
✍ Scribed by Prohens, Jaime; Ruiz, Juan J; Nuez, Fernando
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 133 KB
- Volume
- 79
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0022-5142
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The success of the pepino (Solanum muricatum Aiton) as a new crop for intensive horticultural areas relies on shortening the growing cycle and on securing a high standard of fruit quality. Irrigation with saline water and ethephon sprayings could be useful in achieving these goals. Two consecutive pepino crops consisting of two hybrids and their four parents were grown in the autumnwinter cycle. Plants were irrigated with water having electrical conductivities of 3 or 8 dS m-1 and full sized fruits were sprayed with ethephon at 0 or 500 mg l-1. Salinity reduced yield and fruit size, although this eþ ect was less important in the hybrids, which showed heterosis for yield characters. Overall, yields and fruit size of hybrids irrigated with saline water were greater than in the parents irrigated with non-saline water. Ethephon had no eþ ect on yield characters. Salinity and ethephon improved earliness. In most clones combination of salinity and ethephon shortened the growing cycle by 1 month. Salinity improved fruit quality as it increased the soluble solids content (SSC) and dry matter (DM) in all clones, and titratable acidity (TA) in some cases. Ethephon sprayings had no marked eþ ects on quality characters, except for parental clone 9-1 in which ethephon treated fruits had a lower SSC and TA. Organoleptic tests conducted on the best ýavoured clones (0-8 and 6-10) showed that salinity improved fruit aroma and ýavour although not texture, while ethephon had no eþ ects. Results show that irrigation with saline water and ethephon sprayings improve earliness and fruit quality without dramatic yield depressions, especially in the hybrid clones.