Leatheriness and mealiness of peaches in relation to fruit maturity and storage temperature

'Huangjin' peaches (Prunus persica Batsch) were harvested at commercial harvest time (commercial) and 20 d before (early) or after (later) commercial harvest. Fruit from each harvest were stored at three temperature regimes (0, 5 and 10 degrees C) at 95% r.h. After four weeks of storage at 0 or 5 degrees C, early harvested fruit developed more leatheriness but less mealiness and later harvested fruit did not develop leatheriness but developed more mealiness compared with fruit from commercial harvest. Overall, fruit stored at 5 degrees C developed more mealiness but less leatheriness than fruit at 0 degrees C for the same period of storage. When stored at 10 degrees C for two weeks, after which fruit were senescent, fruit did not develop any leatheriness or mealiness regardless of harvest times. Fruit with leatheriness were firmer (>30 N) than juicy or mealy fruit (<10 N) after the same period of cold storage and 4 d at 20 degrees C. Mealy fruit were as soft as juicy fruit. 1-Aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase (ACO) activity, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxlic acid (ACC) content, and polygalacturonase (PG) and galactosidase (CAL) activities were lower, and insoluble pectin content was higher in leathery fruit than that in juicy or mealy fruit. AGO, FG and GAL activity, ACC, and insoluble pectin content were similar between mealy and juicy fruit.