Ripening effects on the chilling sensitivity of processing and non-processing tomato cultivars

Studies on the sensitivity to chilling injury (CI) of 8 processing and 8 non-processing tomato cultivars stored at the table-ripe stage were examined. Fruits were stored for 21 days at 7oC and upon transfer to 20oC for 1 or 3 days, respectively. The low correlation coefficient between pitting and decay suggested that these two early manifestations of CI are not significantly related. The least sensitive tomato cultivars to CI were Advantage, Dorado and Rio Grande among the processing types and Star Pak and Walters of the non-processing types. The least tolerance to CI were processing cultivars Caraibe and Cascade and non-processing cultivars Early Set, Carnival and Capitan. The observed tolerance of table-ripe tomatoes mentioned above after 21 days at 7oC plus 3 days at 20oC compared to control fruit stored continuously at 20oC for only 8-11 days, indicates that a longer marketing period could be obtained at tempertures lower than those currently recommended. Key words: Tomato, processing and non-processing cultivars, chilling injury, sensitivity Capitan. Samples from all sixteen cultivars were ripened to table-ripe stage, USDA score 6 (United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Assn., 1975), at 20-22oC and 85-90 % RH over 3-4 days. Measurements were made on five fruits per cultivar each time, i.e. after 21 days at 7oC (SRI) and upon transfer to 20oC for 1 day (SR2) or 3 day