Interior White Tissue and External Tomato Irregular Ripening Are Not Increased by Harvesting Tomato Fruit at the Mature-Green Stage

Abstract

ABSTRACT The effect of fruit maturity at harvest from a tomato field plot without detectable silverleaf whiteflies (SLWF) on subsequent internal white tissue (IWT) and external tomato irregular ripening (TIR) was assessed. SLWF damage has been documented as the primary cause of IWT and external TIR, but some symptoms are observed in the absence of detectable whiteflies. Tomato fruit were harvested at either the red-ripe or mature-green stages from four different rows of a field treated with imidacloprid to control SLWF. The mature-green fruit were placed in a ripening room (20°C) for seven days. The fruit harvested at the red-ripe stage had a mean external TIR of 5.0%, and the fruit harvested at the mature-green stage and ripened at 20°C had a mean external TIR of 8.9%. The mean percentage of vine- and ripening-room ripened fruit with IWT was 8.3% and 8.9%, respectively. There were no differences in degree of external or internal symptoms for vine- and ripening-room ripened tomato fruit. The reasons for the occurrence of TIR and IWT in tomato fruit harvested from fields with undetectable SLWF are not known.