The Effect of Cultivars, Rootstocks, Fruit Maturity and Gibberellic Acid on Pedicel Retention of Sweet Cherries ( Prunus AviumL.)

Abstract

Traditional markets for fresh sweet cherries ( Prunus aviumL.) require pedicels to be attached to the fruit. Recently, there has been interest in developing markets for fresh stemless sweet cherries. This is generally motivated by the appeal of mechanically harvesting cherries due to concerns surrounding supply and cost of harvest labor. Sweet cherries destined for the processing market have traditionally been mechanically harvested and are stemless. Pedicel removal force is an important issue for the whole industry; cherries sold in the traditional format require high removal force whereas those for the stemless market need to have pedicels that have lower removal force. The objective of this study was to characterize the pedicel removal force of a range of new sweet cherry cultivars and determine the impact of maturity, rootstock, and gibberellic acid application on pedicel removal force of sweet cherries. Sweet cherry cultivars differed in the amount of force required to remove pedicels, ranging from 655 g for ‘Sentennial’ to 1061 g for ‘Sandra Rose’. The end use of the cherries and method of harvest will determine if the pedicel removal force is a concern. As expected, maturity had an effect on stem removal force; that is as cherries matured (ripened) the stem removal force declined. Neither rootstock nor gibberellic acid had an impact on stem removal force.