EFFECT OF STORAGE TEMPERATURE AND LOW TEMPERATURE CONDITIONING ON QUALITY AND CHILLING INJURY OF ‘LD1’ RED FLESH DRAGON FRUIT

Vietnam is a significant producer of dragon fruit, mainly concentrated on white flesh cultivars up to now. ‘LD1’ characterized by red flesh was newly bred cultivar and has been widely cultivated in Vietnam but limited research on postharvest was reported. In this study, we examined the effect of storage temperature (2, 6 and 10°C) for 2 or 4 6 weeks on quality of LD1 fruit in comparison with the control (non-stored - 20°C). In addition, the potential for improving quality by using low temperature conditionings (LTC) at 6 and 10°C for 3 days before keeping fruits for storage at 2°C. For fruit that were not cool stored (kept at 20°C), fruit could be kept for approximately 5 days, but quality decreased rapidly so that by 9 days fruit began to rot. For cool stored fruit, 6°C was the best temperature resulting in a good quality for up to 4 weeks without chilling injury. At the lowest storage temperature (2°C), fruit suffered chilling injury which included wilting and desiccation of the bracts, and translucence of the outer flesh with low percentage of fruit rotten was observed. Chilling symptoms were appeared after even 2 weeks of storage and increasing with storage duration. Chilling symptoms and rot incidence increased dramatically with time at 20°C after removal from storage. Low temperature conditioning slightly reduced chilling symptoms at 2°C. These results provide initial recommendations for postharvest storage conditions, and directions for further research.