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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Wenatchee, Washington » Physiology and Pathology of Tree Fruits Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #327161
Research Project: Developmental Genomics and Metabolomics Influencing Temperate Tree Fruit Quality

Location: Physiology and Pathology of Tree Fruits Research

Title: Evaluating fruit quality and maturity consistency in large open vase trained ‘D’Anjou’ trees

Author
item SERRA, SARA - Washington State University
item Rudell, David
item Mattheis, James
item MUSACCHI, STEFANO - Washington State University

Submitted to: Annual Meeting Horticultural Society
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/25/2016
Publication Date: 8/22/2016
Citation: Serra, S., Rudell Jr, D.R., Mattheis, J.P., Musacchi, S. 2016. Evaluating fruit quality and maturity consistency in large open vase trained ‘D’Anjou’ trees. Annual Meeting Horticultural Society. Available: https://ashs.confex.com/ashs/2016/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/24080.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The pear industry in the Pacific North West is still based on low density systems with globe shaped canopies with multiple leaders and usually an open center to allow light penetration. The rootstock limitation to mainly seedlings, promoting high vigor in the tree, explains the choice for this training system. Single trees can reach 17 ft in height with a very large canopy volume where fruits are distributed mostly in the upper-medium portion of the canopy. Fruit characteristics inside such a vigorous tree can be very diverse because their exposure to light is variable within the canopy. This system has several disadvantages; among them it produces a broad population of fruit in terms of maturity and internal quality. A ‘d’Anjou’ pear commercial orchard located in WA and grafted on Bartlett seedlings in the 1970s with a planting density of 278 trees/ha was object of this study. A portable spectrometer was used to quantify light intensity in the different horizontal layers within 15 similar canopies in the same orchard. Depending upon percentage of actual light intercepted within the canopy, fruit were classified in two canopy positions as internal (<30% light) and external (70-100% light) and were separately harvested on 9/10/2014. Fruit were sorted accordingly to the IAD index (parameter measured by the DA-meter and well-correlated with fruit maturity level) and classified into 5 classes (IAD<1.60, 1.60