ISHS Acta Horticulturae 343: Physiological Basis of Postharvest Technologies
PRESTORAGE HEAT TREATMENT OF TOMATOES PREVENTS CHILLING INJURY AND REVERSIBLY INHIBITS RIPENING |
| Authors: | S. Lurie, J.D. Klein, C. Watkins, G. Ross, P. Boss, I.F. Ferguson |
| Abstract:
Holding fruit at elevated temperatures has been shown to inhibit ripening processes. If the high temperature is maintained for too long, fruit will not ripen normally when returned to temperatures of 20 to 25C. However, if high temperature is held for a week or less fruits will ripen after a delay, and thus shelf life is effectively extended. High temperature treatment causes a heat stress response in treated tissue. Since giving one stress to plant tissue can sometimes induce resistance to a different stress, it was of interest to see if high temperature treatment could induce resistance to chilling injury. Tomatoes normally develop chilling injury if stored below 8C. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of holding tomato fruit for three days at 38C on subsequent ripening and susceptibility to low temperature injury. | |
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