SPECIFICS OF HARVESTING, PROCESSING AND CHANGES OCCURRING IN THE FRUITS OF FEIJOA (ACCA SELLOWIANA О. BERG) DURING STORAGE

The paper reflects some specifics of harvesting and processing of feijoa berries. Harvesting this crop is the most difficult and time-consuming procedure in comparison with other subtropical crops, since the ripening process does not occur at the same time (even within one plant) and lasts more than a month. The long-term results of qualitative fruit indicators of domestic feijoa cultivars (‘Dagomysskaya’, ‘Dachnaya’, ‘Sentyabrskaya’) are presented. The introduced cultivar ‘Superba’ was taken as a control. Feijoa fruits are climacteric and ripen well during storage. The shelf life of fruits in natural conditions is limited to several days. The processes occurring in fruits during storage are mainly represented by water losses and by the consumption of organic substances for respiration. With intensive evaporation, the turgor of the cells weakens, and tissue wilting occurs, which is accompanied by an increase in the decay processes of all organic substances contained in the cells. When wilting, the resistance of fruits to damage by microorganisms also decreases and, consequently, the shelf life gets shortened. They are mainly affected by fruit rot, which is caused by a number of fungi – Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz). Penz. and Sacc. et al. Experiments on the storage of feijoa cultivars with different maturation periods (early, medium and late) were carried out under normal conditions – in an unheated room at a temperature of 10–13 о C. The fruits with an average ripening period (‘Superba’, ‘Dagomysskaya’) were the best preserved, the worst results were in the early-ripening cultivar ‘Sentyabrskaya’, because it has a very thin peel. When stored with the use of SF (SmartFreshтм) for 45 days, the content of vitamin C, P-active catechins, pectin and commodity qualities increase.