Pg. 31-34 Evaluation of the Postharvest Characteristics of Litchi Fruit from the Cultivar Development Program: 2000

The postharvest evaluation of new cultivars and selections is crucial to ensure that only exportable cultivars with an adequate shelf life are recommended. This work is a continuation of a program started during the previous season and this year included ‘Fay Zee Siu’, ‘Kwai May Pink’, ‘Haak Yip’ and ‘Kaimana’, which were compared with the widely grown cultivars ‘HLH Mauritius’ and ‘McLean’s Red’. External colour retention was found to be acceptable in all the new cultivars. Internally, all the cultivars were acceptable except for ‘Kwai May Pink’ which showed aril discoloration which effectively disqualifies this cultivar. ‘Haak Yip’ and ‘HLH Mauritius’ produced the best results in terms of firmness and percentage mass loss; ‘McLean’s Red’ achieved the worst results, while ‘Fay Zee Siu’ and ‘Kaimana’ were intermediate. ‘Fay Zee Siu’ developed less fungal infection than the other cultivars, but the incidence of infection was not as low as during the previous season. With regard to sulphur fumigation, ‘McLean’s Red’ exhibited unacceptably high residues
in the aril after 25 days of cold storage. HLH Mauritius and Kwai May Pink obtained values lower than the set limit of 1 O ppm, while Fay Zee Sui and Kaimana obtained slightly higher values of 14 and 13 ppm respectively.