A Comparison of Quality Attributes in ‘AU Golden Dragon’, ‘AU Golden Sunshine’, and ‘Hort 16A’ Kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) During Storage

Abstract

This research focused on the effects of fruit size and cultivar on fruit quality and postharvest storage life of three cultivars of Actinidia chinensis. In the first experiment, the fruit quality attributes of ‘AU Golden Dragon’, ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ and ‘Hort 16A’ were determined for three different sizes of kiwifruit over 14 weeks in cold storage. Soluble solids (SS) content, SS:titratable acidity (SS:TA), internal color and external color development increased as fruit firmness and titratable acidity decreased due to time in cold storage. Based on fruit firmness results, smaller sized A. chinensis fruit appear to have greater cold storage life potential than larger sized fruit. In the second experiment, fruit quality attributes and storage life of ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ was compared to ‘Hort 16A’. ‘Hort 16A’ fruit had a greater SS, SS:TA and percent dry weight (% DW) compared to ‘AU Golden Sunshine’. ‘AU Golden Sunshine’ and ‘Hort 16A’ fruit were stored for 14 weeks before firmness decreased below optimum eating quality.