Climate Variability Influences on the Internal Quality Indexes of 'Valencia Late' Orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck) and 'Marsh ' Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macf.) under the Tropical Cuban Conditions

摘要

The Internal fruit Quality Indexes impact the potential use of the citrus fruits for the processed industry. Some Cuban authors have reported that for the same cultivar bigger differences exist among edaphoclimatic regions (West, Centre and East) than among the plantations of the same location (Sinchez, et al, 2004; Betancourt, et al, 2006). During the period 2005 - 2007, Cuba has been affected by extreme events of the atmospheric time and of the climate, with a great influence on the internal fruit quality of 'Valencia' Orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck) and 'Marsh' Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macf.)when it is compared with periods previous to 2004. The knowledge of the regions' climatic effects would allow to apply measures to attenuate their adverse effects, among them, the regionalization of varieties and the improvement of new cultivation technologies. With this objective, a study was conducted in eight citrus enterprises distributed in the three regions of the country, associated with processed industries for simple juice and frozen concentrate. This study allows concluding when it is compared with the results of the years previous to 2004 that the fruit juice content was decreased by 6% in the orange, and 3% in the grapefruit with smaller values in both cases in the Eastern region. The total soluble solids (SST) varied the extreme values in the orange and the grapefruit in 2.7° Brix and 1. 58°Brix, respectively, with smaller values in the western region. The results are shown by graphics.