Gibberellic acid slows postharvest degreening of 'Oroblanco' citrus fruits

Abstract

'Oroblanco' is an early-maturing pummelo-grapefruit hybrid (Citrus grandis Osbeck x C. paradisi Macf.). The fruit are usually picked and marketed while the peel color is still green; however, in some cases they can lose this green color during postharvest shipping and storage, which diminishes their commercial value. The effects of storage temperatures, gibberellic acid (GA), ethylene, and 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) on the degreening of 'Oroblanco' fruit were examined. Storage temperature was critical for retaining fruit color: at 2°C the fruit remained green for a period up to 5 weeks, whereas at storage temperatures of 6, 12, and 20°C there was a progressive increase in the rate of degreening. Applications of GA, either as preharvest sprays or as postharvest dip treatments, effectively retained the green fruit color. Ethylene exposures up to 100 μL·L-1 for 3 days had only a slight effect on fruit degreening, and 1-MCP treatments up to 200 nL·L-1 for 16 hours had no effect at all. The slight influence of ethylene and the ineffectiveness of 1-MCP on fruit color change can not be attributed to difficulties in their application, since in the same experiments ethylene markedly induced peduncle abscission, and 1-MCP effectively inhibited this ethylene effect. Accordingly, ethylene had only a relatively small effect on the induction of chlorophyllase enzyme activity in green 'Oroblanco' peel tissue.