Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Applied Fruit Science, cilt.67, sa.3, 2025 (Scopus)
Preharvest foliar treatments have become a widely used practice in various horticultural crops to improve their adaptation to rapidly changing climatic conditions. In light of these unstable climatic patterns, sweet cherry cracking has emerged as a critical problem that significantly affects the market value of fruit and yield. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of Ascophyllum nodosum (AN), glycine betaine (GB), calcium chloride (Ca), and silicon (Si) treatments on the cracking index (%) and overall quality of the sweet cherry cultivar ‘Royal Tiago.’ The Si, Ca, and GB treatments resulted in a significant reduction in the cracking index by 71.00%, 35.38%, and 26.00%, respectively, compared to the control. In contrast, AN treatment increased the cracking index by 26.12%. All preharvest treatments significantly increased the firmness of sweet cherry fruit. Notably, the Pearson’s correlation coefficient showed a negative correlation between cracking index and antioxidant activity in 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay (r = −0.69) as well as between fruit firmness (r = −0.61), total phenolic content (r = −0.75), and acidity (r = −0.57). Ca and Si treatments significantly increased malic acid content and improved the organic acid profile of the fruit. In addition, AN, GB, and Ca foliar fertilizers significantly contributed to increase sugar, organic acids, total anthocyanin content, fruit weight, fruit firmness, and DPPH. The results obtained provide valuable insights into the control of fruit cracking and also appear to be a low-cost and environmentally safe means of improving the quality and marketability of sweet cherry fruit as well as facilitating harvest and postharvest management.