Influence of Harvest Date on Storage Quality of Asian Pear ( Pyrus pyrifolia ) Fruit

Pear cv. ‘Patharnakh’ is the most promising cultivar of pear grown in the subtropics of northwestern India. The fruit is generally harvested from July to the first week of August and is largely transported to far-off markets within the country. A study was therefore undertaken to assess the effect of harvest dates on the storage life of pear fruit. The fruits were harvested at four different times (2nd, 3rd, and 4th week of July and 1st week of August) and stored for 70 days to evaluate the physical and chemical changes that occurred during storage. During storage, fruits harvested in the 2nd week of July consistently exhibited the higher fruit firmness, titratable acidity, total antioxidant activity (TAA) and total phenolics content (TPC) than the late harvested fruits. In contrast, delayed harvested fruits recorded higher spoilage percentage, total soluble solids (TSS) and total sugars. Moreover, fruits harvested in the 3rd week of July had minimum weight loss and the highest sensory quality until 70th day of storage. The fruit harvested at the later harvesting stage recorded higher activities of fruit softening enzymes activity like pectin methylesterase (PME), polygalacturonase (PG) and cellulase enzymes as compared to fruit harvested at an earlier stage. Thus, the results revealed that fruits harvested during the 3rd week of July retained better quality and enhanced the storage life of ‘Patharnakh’ pear fruit stored at low temperature.