Vol. 77 No: 5

Title:
Studies on water transport through the sweet cherry fruit surface. Effect of hydrostatic pressure on water uptake

Authors:
M. KNOCHE and S. PESCHEL

pp: 609-614

Abstract:
The effect of hydrostatic pressure on water uptake by sweet cherry fruit (Prunus avium L.) was studied to establish whether flow through stylar scar, pedicel/fruit juncture or stomata are factors in water uptake. Hydrostatic pressure was varied by submerging fruit in deionized water for 0.25 h at different depths (0.03 to 1.85 m equivalent to hydrostatic pressures of 0.3 to 18.1 kPa in addition to air pressure). Water uptake was determined gravimetrically. Increasing hydrostatic pressure increased water uptake and percentage of stomata penetrated by an 0.1 % (w/v) acridine orange solution (surface tension 71 mN m^-1). Water uptake and percentage stomata penetrated were positively related. Fruit that cracked during immersion had a somewhat higher uptake than fruit free of visible cracks. The effect of pressure was qualitatively similar for early and mature stage III fruit, but uptake at 0.3 and 5.0 kPa was higher for mature stage III fruit. The higher uptake at low pressure in mature stage III was related to water flow through the pedicelifruit juncture, since sealing the juncture markedly reduced uptake. Sealing the stylar scar had no effect on water uptake. Extrapolating the uptake/pressure relations to zero pressure revealed that water uptake into mature crack-free fruit wetted by a hypothetical thin continuous water film on the surface would occur through the pedicel/fruit juncture, the cuticular membrane and, possibly, a small fraction of infiltrated stomata.

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