Determination of Fruit Growth in Some Apple Varieties

This study was carried out in order to examine the fruit development in some apple varieties which are grafted on MM 106 rootstock and reach the harvesting maturity in various periods under Isparta (Eğirdir) conditions. Changes in diameter of the fruits were regularly measured, beginning from the time when they reached about 1 cm diameter size until the harvesting time so that we could create fruit growth curves in Jerseymac, Galaxy Gala and Braeburn apple varieties that are grafted on MM 106 rootstock. All varieties grew with a regular single sigmoid curve from fruit set time to harvest. During grow and development periods average fruit weight, soluble solids content, pH value of the fruit juice increased, and fruit firmness, titratable acidity decreased. Moreover, it was found out that the values L and b decreased while the value a increased during harvest times of the varieties when compared to the first samples taken right after the color broken (P 0.01 for Braeburn and P 0.05 for other varieties).