Maturity Prediction in Yellow Peach ( Prunus persica L.) Cultivars Using a Fluorescence Spectrometer.

Abstract

Technology for rapid, non-invasive and accurate determination of fruit maturity is increasingly sought after in horticultural industries. This study investigated the ability to predict fruit maturity of yellow peach cultivars using a prototype non-destructive fluorescence spectrometer. Collected spectra were analysed to predict flesh firmness (FF), soluble solids concentration (SSC), index of absorbance difference (I AD ), skin and flesh colour attributes (i.e., a* and H°) and maturity classes (immature, harvest-ready and mature) in four yellow peach cultivars-'August Flame', 'O'Henry', 'Redhaven' and 'September Sun'. The cultivars provided a diverse range of maturity indices. The fluorescence spectrometer consistently predicted I AD and skin colour in all the cultivars under study with high accuracy (Lin's concordance correlation coefficient > 0.85), whereas flesh colour's estimation was always accurate apart from 'Redhaven'. Except for 'September Sun', good prediction of FF and SSC was observed. Fruit maturity classes were reliably predicted with a high likelihood ( F1 -score = 0.85) when samples from the four cultivars were pooled together. Further studies are needed to assess the performance of the fluorescence spectrometer on other fruit crops. Work is underway to develop a handheld version of the fluorescence spectrometer to improve the utility and adoption by fruit growers, packhouses and supply chain managers.

Plant phenotyping relevance

蛍光分光計を用いてモモ果実の成熟度や品質関連形質を非破壊推定し、複数品種で精度評価しているため、植物フェノタイピング手法が中心です。

Code and data availability

The paper reports peach fluorescence-spectra phenotyping and PLS/LDA modelling. The only qualifying paper-specific public asset is the authors' sample analysis code (simulated annealing wavelength band selection with PLS), explicitly stated as freely available as a Jupyter Notebook. No public phenotype dataset, spectra