The anatomy and physiology of preharvest fruit cracking in pomegranate

ABSTRACTphD THESISTHE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF PREHARVEST FRUITCRACKING IN POMEGRANATECenap YILMAZDEPARTMENT OF HORTICULTUREINSTITUTE OF NATURAL AND APPLIED SCIENCESUNIVERSITY OF ÇUKUROVASupervisor: Prof. Dr. Ahsen Işık ÖZGÜVENYear: 2005, Pages: 250Jury: Prof. Dr. Ahsen Işık ÖZGÜVENProf. Dr. Sevgi PAYDAŞProf. Dr. Ayzin B. KÜDENProf. Dr. Uygun AKSOYAssoc. Prof. Dr. Sema DÜZENLİThe aim of this experiment was examination of the anatomy and physiologyof preharvest fruit cracking in pomegranate (Punica grantum L.).The experiment was carried out on İzmir 10, İzmir 15, İzmir 16, İzmir 23,İzmir 26, Silifke Aşısı and Hicaz cvs. as 4 replicates at the pomegranate orchard ofHorticultural Department of Çukurova University in 2001, 2002 ve 2003 years.The yields, pomological, some chemical and anatomical characters belongingto all cultivars have been examined. At the same time, the climatic data, moisture ofsoil, fruit numbers per plant and fruit development curves were determined in allcultivarsFinally, it has been determined that the highest fruit cracking ratio were inİzmir 10 and Silifke aşısı, the lowest was in İzmir 16 in 2001, while the highest wasin İzmir 15 and the lowest was in İzmir 16 in 2002 and in the third year, the highestcracking ratio was obtain at İzmir 23 and the lowest were İzmir 16 and Silifke aşısıcvs.It was found that the cracked fruits have lower weight, size, peel thicknessand higher TSS, aril and juice rates. It was determined that the cracked fruit peelcontained lower level of water, potassium, IAA, K/Ca, K/(Ca+Mg) and higher levelof nitrogen, calcium, ABA, water soluble pectin and N/K than that in uncrackedfruits. It was determined that the peel cell of all cultivars in the experiment werecontained plenty starch granules and the peels of cultivars contained stone cells. Inaddition, the cuticle and epidermis of cracked fruits peel were thinner than that ofuncracked fruits.Key Words: Pomegranate, Fruit Cracking, Cell Structure, ChemicalStructure, PomologyII