2017 ASHS Annual Conference

Blackberries are very perishable and growers face several postharvest handling issues such as changes of color (for instance, red drupelet inversion), leakiness, and fresh weight loss during cold storage. Some varieties are more prone to develop changes that reduce fruit quality than others. Thus, understanding how to handle different varieties can help growers to harvest and store fruit more efficiently, to reduce losses, and to increase postharvest fruit quality. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of different harvest and postharvest practices on the quality of eleven blackberry cultivars. This study was carried out at the Clemson University Musser Fruit Research Farm, in Seneca, South Carolina. A randomized block design with eight treatments and three blocks were used. Treatments were the result of the combination of 1) harvesting time (7:00 am or 10:00 am); 2) transfer time of the fruit from the field to cold storage (less than 30 min or 1.5 hours from harvest); and 3) length of time in cold storage (one week or two weeks). We harvested blackberries from fifteen blackberry plants of the following varieties: ‘Osage’, ‘Natchez’, ‘Ouachita’, ‘Navajo’, ‘Apache’, ‘Arapaho’, ‘Prime-Ark Freedom’, ‘Prime-Ark Traveler’, ‘Triple Crown’, ‘Chester’ and ‘Von’. Cultivars responded differently to these treatments. Red drupelet inversion increased in ‘Natchez’ and ‘Apache’ due to a longer transfer time to cold storage and the duration of cold storage; however, longer transfer time to the cold chamber did not increase reddening in ‘Prime-Ark Freedom’ or ‘Prime-Ark Traveler’ nor did the length of time in cold storage for ‘Osage’ or ‘Ouachita’. Harvesting time or duration of storage seemed to increase leakage in ‘Apache’ more than the effect of transferring fruit time fruit to cold storage but none of these factors seem to increase leakage in ‘Prime-Ark Freedom’ or ‘Prime-Ark Traveler’. Thus, handling practices at harvest and postharvest affected postharvest quality of blackberries differently depending on the cultivar.