Developing the California fresh fig industry

Authors: CRISOSTO, CARLOS - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA; FERGUSON, LOUISE - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA; Preece, John; MICHAILIDES, THEMIS - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA; HAUG, M - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA; LOPEZ CORRALES, MARGARITA - CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS Y TECNOLOGICAS DE EXTREMADURA; CRISOSTO, GAYLE - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Submitted to: Acta Horticulturae
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/1/2017
Publication Date: 10/31/2017
Citation: Crisosto, C.H., Ferguson, L., Preece, J.E., Michailides, T.J., Haug, M.T., Lopez Corrales, M., Crisosto, G.M. 2017. Developing the California fresh fig industry. Acta Horticulturae. 1173:285-292. https://doi.org:10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1173.49.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1173.49

Interpretive Summary: The fig (Ficus carica), one of the first cultivated trees in the world, is grown in most of the of the world’s moderate climates. However, fresh figs are highly sensitive to physical damage, and susceptible to postharvest infections which cause high losses during marketing. Preharvest orchard and postharvest conditions are important for improving fruit quality and postharvest life. Reducing postharvest losses and developing global fresh fig marketing is a challenge for plant breeders, physiologists and postharvest scientists. Our program focuses on increasing consumer consumption by identifying cultivars with high quality and suitable postharvest attributes, developing postharvest handling technologies, and improving marketing. Our postharvest evaluations of consumer acceptance and the firmness and decay susceptibility of promising fresh figs in the National Clonal Germplasm Repository (NCGR) suggested a breeding program for developing firm fleshed cultivars with high consumer acceptance.

Technical Abstract: The fig (Ficus carica), one of the first cultivated trees in the world, is grown in most of the of the world’s moderate climates. However, fresh figs are highly sensitive to physical damage, and susceptible to postharvest infections which cause high losses during marketing. Preharvest orchard and postharvest conditions are important for improving fruit quality and postharvest life. Reducing postharvest losses and developing global fresh fig marketing is a challenge for plant breeders, physiologists and postharvest scientists. Our program focuses on increasing consumer consumption by identifying cultivars with high quality and suitable postharvest attributes, developing postharvest handling technologies, and improving marketing. Our postharvest evaluations of consumer acceptance and the firmness and decay susceptibility of promising fresh figs in the National Clonal Germplasm Repository (NCGR) suggested a breeding program for developing firm fleshed cultivars with high consumer acceptance.