Seasonal variation in the development of chilling injury in ‘O’Henry’ peaches

Mealiness, a chilling injury symptom, is one of the most important quality limiting factors in peaches and nectarines exported from Chile. The development of mealiness was analyzed over 3 years to quantify the expression of this chilling injury (CI) symptom in different growth seasons. For such a purpose, ‘O’Henry’ peaches, considered a CI susceptible cultivar, were harvested and stored at 0 °C (non-CI inducing conditions) and 4 °C (CI inducing conditions) for 15, 21 and 30 days. Quantitative measurements of juice content in the fruits, an indicator of mealiness, showed that there was a significant variation in the expression of the disorder over the years, being higher in 2 years of evaluations. As expected, there was a reduction in juice content, or a higher incidence of mealiness, with longer cold-storage especially at 4 °C. There was no detectable correlation between juice content and quality attributes and physiological parameters, including skin color, flesh firmness, soluble solids content, respiration and ethylene production rates, suggesting factors other than those analyzed in this study, are involved in this disorder.