FLESH FIRMNESS UTILISING A PENETROMETER AS A HARVEST MATURITY PARAMETER FOR APRICOTS

Skin colour and the percentage wring are currently used as parameters for determining optimum harvest maturity of apricots in South Africa. Skin colour is determined using an industry colour chart, and the wring test is performed by cutting the fruit along the suture and twisting the halves in opposite directions to enable visual inspection of the stone. The fruit is regarded as wrung if no flesh adheres to the visible part of the stone. Despite use of these maturity indices, large variations in harvest maturity occur across years, farms and orchards, often resulting in inconsistent apricot quality in the market place.