Turkish Journal of Agricultural and Natural Sciences Special Issue: 2, 2014

In terms of agricultural exports, cherry is an important product for Turkey. Export is possible with the high quality production, harvest at the right time and properly storing. Quality cherries to market is one of the most important step that determination of the optimal harvest date and harvesting on these dates. Fruits are encountered with the loss of quality and products if they are not harvested an exact date. This study was conducted to evaluate physical measurements of fruit quality as a maturity index for estimating optimum harvest date (OHD) of Lapins cherries. For this purpose, the days after full blossom (DAFB) was determined as 19.04.2012. Cherry fruits, began after 22 DAFB, were harvested at certain periods. Fruit samples were picked from 22 to 85 DAFB. Skin color, fruit width and length, fruit weight, fruit firmness, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), respiration rate, maturity index (TSS/TA ratio) were analyzed in picked fruits. As a result of the analysis, as DAFB was increased, fruit weight, fruit width and length were increased. Fruit growth was slowed down in the days after OHD. With the start of the changes in fruit color L*, b * and h ° color value were rapidly decreased, while a * value was increased. This color changes was slowed down in the days after OHD. Respiration rate in small fruit stage was very high, while respiration rate was slow gradually during growth. OHD of Lapins cherry variety was determined as 64 DAFB