Peach Fruit Flesh Types Differ in Softening Rates in Cold Storage and Shelf Storage

Peach cultivars with diverse flesh types are becoming more commonly available and provide opportunities for market expansion and enhanced customer appeal. Efficient harvesting, handling, and storage practices for different flesh types need to be developed. We conducted a two-year study to quantify storage performance of peaches with different flesh ripening characteristics. Samples of 20-30 commercially mature peaches of the cultivars ‘Bounty’ (yellow melting flesh), ‘Gloria’ (yellow partially stony-hard flesh), ‘White Lady’ (white melting flesh), ‘Klondike’ (white melting flesh), and ‘Scarlet Rose’ (white stony-hard flesh) were evaluated at time of harvest, after 14 days in conventional cold storage (0°C, 95% RH), and after removal from 14 days of cold storage and then three days on a shelf at room temperature. We evaluated multiple harvest dates for each cultivar. Fruit flesh firmness, mass, diameter, total soluble solids, and total titratable acidity were measured at each evaluation time. Small, but significant changes in flesh firmness occurred in storage for all cultivars. Softening rates in cold storage averaged 0.1 to 0.6 lbs. per day. Rehardening of fruits harvested after already soft occurred in ‘Bounty’, ‘Klondike’, and ‘Gloria’. Softening rates on the shelf were; ‘Bounty’ 4.3, ‘Gloria’ 2.3, ‘White Lady’ 2.9, ‘Klondike’ 3.5, and ‘Scarlet Rose’ 0.8 lbs. per day. ‘Scarlet Rose’ fruit retain firmness on the shelf dramatically longer than the other cultivars tested and present an opportunity for product differentiation to the consumer.