Solar radiation as a preharvest factor affecting the tomato susceptibility to postharvest chilling injury

RUIZ, V.E.; REUTEMANN, A.G.; DERITA, M.G.; MARTÍNEZ, G.; BOUZO, C.

Congreso; XXXIII Aregentinian Meeting of Plant Physiology (RAFV); 2021

Tomato tolerance (Solanum lycopersicum L.) to low temperatures decreases in sunshine fruit. Considering tomato is cultivated under different cultivation system modifying light conditions, and its potential impact on fruit postharvest life, the aim of this work was to study the relationship between solar radiation and the fruit susceptibility to postharvest chilling injury. For this, two preharvest treatments were applied: permanent shaded plants (Sh) and direct sunligth exposed plants (Ex) as controls. The accumulated daily solar radiation, the air temperature and the vapor pressure deficit were determined, as well as the fruit temperature. After harvesting, fruit were stored at 10 and 4 ⁰C during ten days. Then, several determinations were carried out: calcium content, postharvest parameters, ions leakeage and thiobarbituric acid reactive species content, chilling injury index (CII) and morphological and anatomical description of epicarp pits. A randomized design with three replications was applied. An ANOVA with a comparison of means by Tukey test was performed (p ≤ 0.01). The results showed that Ex fruit had higher CII values than the Sh fruit, as well as fruit stored at 4 ⁰C presented a more marked damage than those under 10 ⁰C. The membrane stability and the rot incidence presented a close correlation with the CII. The lower calcium content in the Ex fruit could be one of the causes of their response to chilling. Accumulated temperature at the field resulted critical factor affecting postharvest chilling injury susceptibility. These evidences could help making decisions for crop management, according to the market target.