Some Physical and Chemical Changes in Kiwifruit During Two Different Growth and Development Seasons

The development of kiwifruit cultivation in the Eastern Black Sea region of Türkiye is important as an additional income generating product. However, climate changes observed in recent years have affected not only fruit growth and development but also fruit quality. This study was carried out to determine the changes in some physical and chemical properties of the fruits of the ‘Hayward’ kiwifruit cultivar from the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Faculty of Agriculture Research and Experiment Orchard, Türkiye, during the pre-harvest period in the 2017–2018 sampling seasons. For this purpose, fruit samples were first taken at the end of July, and the last sampling time continued at 1‑week intervals until the end of November. In our study, in the pre-harvest period in both years, all parameters changed significantly and significant increases were observed not only in the physical properties of the fruit, but also in the soluble solids content and dry matter content. While fruit ripening increased, fruit firmness decreased with the progression of the maturity stage. In this article, the relationships between the investigated parameters are discussed in relation to the climate data.