Amadurecimento, climatização e armazenamento refrigerado de frutos de Bananeiras 'BRS Platina' e 'Prata-Anã'

Abstract

The variety ‘Prata-Anã’ is highly accepted by consumers, however it has susceptibility to diseases that may impair production. Aiming to solve this problem, the banana breeding program at Embrapa Mandioca e Fruticultura released the resistant cultivar BRS Platina. Fruit from different cultivars have distinct physical, chemical and physiological characteristics. In this context, this study aimed to characterize ‘BRS Platina’ fruit ripening in seven maturity stages when stored at room temperature, to evaluate fruit conditioning and to establish criteria for cold storage, when compared with its female parental ‘Prata-Anã’. The experiments were performed in a completely randomized design and in a split plot design. The attributes evaluated were skin color, physical and physicochemical.The maturity stages and the effects of conditioning were characterized and the cold storage temperature that maximizes fruit shelf life without quality loss was determined. ‘BRS Platina’ fruit are lighter in the earlier maturity stages, ripen more uniformly and have longer shelf life than ‘Prata-Anã’. ‘BRS Platina’ and ‘Prata-Anã’ fruit conditioning with ethephon at 500 mg L-1antecipates ripening until maturity stage 7 in two and four days, respectively, and reduces mass loss when compared with no conditioning. ‘BRS Platina’ fruit show slower ripening at 10 °C or 14 °C when compared with ‘Prata-Anã’.