Prediction of Harvest Time in Peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] Fruit Using the DA-Meter

The aim of this work was to define the most appropriate time of harvesting early ripening peach fruit using destructive and non-destructive quality indexes such as the index of absorbance (IAD), measured with the DA-Meter, a portable equipment able to measure the degradation of chlorophyll in the pericarp. In this context our research was carried out in 2009 and 2010 on several peach cultivars. Total soluble solid content increased while flesh firmness and total acidity decreased with IAD values, but no significant correlation was found between destructive and non-destructive parameters