Date Received: 26-04-2021 / Date Accepted: 24-05-2021
This study was to evaluate the effects of growing seasons on the quality of tomato cv. Savior. The quality parameters of the tomato during fruit development, climacteric ripening and postharvest storage were analyzed using the instrumental methods. The results showed that the fruit weight of summer tomato (off-season tomato) was significantly smaller than that of winter tomato (on-season tomato) during fruit development and climacteric ripening. Meanwhile, total acidity of summer tomato was 1.5 times higher than that of winter tomato. Both summer and winter tomato shared a similar changing pattern in color, firmness and total soluble solid content. They showed the climacteric peak at the ripening stage 3 (turning color stage), which was 1.220 mmol CO2/kg.h for summer tomato and 1.331 mmol CO2/kg.h for winter fruit. This study has affirmed that tomato cv. Savior has a good heat tolerance capability, thus suitable to grow in both summer and winter seasons without clear differences in phenotype. Data in this study provide a background for further performing in-depth studies at the genomic and proteomic levels to discover the ripening mechanisms between tomato cv. Savior grown in winter and in summer.