| Sumario: | Persimmon is sensitive to chilling injury (CI) when is stored at low temperatures. One of the most important CI symptoms is the flesh softening that occurs when fruit are transferred from cold storage to shelf-life conditions. Postharvest application of 1-Methylcyclopropene (Smartfresh®, SF), a potent inhibitor of ethylene action, has proven to be effective in alleviating the firmness loss caused by chilling in several cultivars, thus prolonging storage at low temperature. In recent years, preharvest treatment with 1-MCP (Harvista®, HV), applied as a liquid spray to the trees, has emerged as a novel option for maintaining fruit quality throughout the postharvest in some crops. Nevertheless, scarce information on the application of HV in persimmon is available. This study shows the effect of HV application on the firmness loss suffered by 'Rojo Brillante' persimmon due to its sensitivity to low temperatures, compared to the known effect of post-harvest application of SF. During two consecutive seasons, in two commercial orchards of 'Rojo Brillante' persimmon, HV was applied 3 days before harvest (HV application was performed by technical personnel from Agrofresh©). After harvest the fruit were stored for 40 or 60 days at 0°C plus 6 days at 20°C simulating the shelf life. Three treatments were compared 1) Control (CTL) (fruit without HV); 2) HV (fruit treated with Harvista); 3) SF (fruit treated with Smartfresh® after harvest). In all cases the HV application alleviated the drop of firmness that occurred in the CTL-fruit when was transferred from 0°C to shelf-life conditions. Furthermore, no differences in firmness values were observed between HV and SF treatments. This indicates that the 1-MCP pre-harvest treatment (HV) has the same effect as the 1-MCP postharvest treatment (SF) on the control of chilling injury in ‘Rojo Brillante’ persimmon, which can be a useful tool to improve operations in packing houses.
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