Combined Use of PlantToon (R) and I-AD to Characterize Fruit Ripening Homogeneity in 'Abbe Fetel' Pears

In pears the knowledge of the ripening stage and the homogeneity of the fruit at harvest is extremely important since pears are normally collected in a single harvest and immediately refrigerated. The fruit grading into commercial and maturation classes is performed only before marketing to avoid fruit bruising. Therefore, it is very important to adopt in the field all the cultural techniques that allow producing fruit of homogeneous ripening. To fulfill this objective and to identify the best cultural techniques for reducing fruit ripening heterogeneity, the 3D software PlantToon (R) and the Index of Absorbance Difference (I-AD) were used. PlantToon (R) reproduces the tree structure, the scaffold, the number of bearing shoots and fruit in the different canopy position. The I-AD is an index that allows non-destructively monitoring of the fruit ripening stage on the tree. The study was performed in Ferrara area (Italy) on 'Abbe Fetel' pear trees trained as spindle and Bibaum (R) (bi-axes) during a three-year trial (2011-2013) characterized by three different fruit loads. The results pointed out that fruit ripening in spindle trees was more heterogeneous than from Bibaum (R) trees and that high fruit load induced fruit ripening heterogeneity. The knowledge of the fruit ripening reached at harvest and of fruit homogeneity could drive decisions about storage and marketing strategies.