The aim of this work was to characterize the maturation stage of peaches 'Aurora-1' for the region of Jaboticabal, SP, Brazil. The experiment was conduced in a commercial orchard in Vista Alegre do Alto, where branches of 15 trees were marked with flowers in "balloon" stage. After 20 days, fruits were harvested, every 7 days (or once a week) until the complete maturation of the fruits (111 days). Through the data of height and diameter, it was checked that the fruits of cultivar Aurora-1 showed the standard growth of sigmoidal double curves reaching in the end of maturation 59.84 ± 6.9 mm of height and 50.30 ± 5.8 mm of diameter. There was a development in the total mass of fruit of 41.08g to 58.82g (43%) in the period of 90 to 111 days. The titratable acidity and the firmness were reduced in the same proportion from the soluble solids and the soluble sugars contents increased during the growth period. The intern color of fruit developed from yellow-greenish to intensive yellow. The base color in the two first samplings showed values similar as of the intern color, from yellow-greenish to orange. Yet, the covering color had a stronger difference changing from yellow-greenish to intensive red, which is proper of the cultivar. These results showed that among 90 and 97 days the fruit reached their physiologic maturation and among 104 and 111 days, they were overripe.
Prunus persica; growth stage; physiologic maturity
