Quality of pitaya (Hylocereus undatus) submitted to organic fertilization and stored under refrigeration

Abstract In this work the effect of organic fertilization associated with refrigeration on red pitaya quality was investigated. For 4 years the plants were fertilized every three months according to the following treatments: control (no fertilization) (T1); bovine manure (14 kg / plant) (T2); chicken manure (2 kg / plant) (T3) and chicken manure (2 kg / plant) + bovine manure (14 kg / plant) (T4). The fruits were stored for 21 days at 13 °C and evaluated on days 0, 7, 14 and 21 for loss of fresh mass, colour, firmness, total titratable acidity (TTA), pH, total soluble solids (TSS), TSS / TA, total sugars and reducing and non-reducing sugars. The results showed that during refrigerated storage of the pitaya fruits, the organic fertilization treatments interfered with the quality parameters evaluated, attenuating the loss of fruit quality. It should be highlighted that fertilization with bovine manure associated with chicken manure proved to be more effective than the other organic fertilizers, and resulted in fruits with reduced quality losses during storage.