After harvested, yellow passion fruit have an increase in rot susceptibility and significant loss of fresh mass. The purposes of this work were to identify and quantify post harvest diseases and to evaluate the physical chemical characteristics of yellow passion fruits grown under conventional and organic cropping systems. Fruits from both cropping systems were individualized and kept in a humid chamber for 24h, previously at 13 days period at 25±2ºC and 70-80% RH. The incidence of diseases and the shrinkage index were visually assessed after fruit gathering and, then, every three days. Fruits were also characterized as to skin thickness, pulp content, titratable acidity and soluble solids content. There was high incidence of post harvest diseases in both conventional and organic cropping systems. Anthracnose was the main disease, with 100% of incidence on fruits from both cropping systems, followed by Fusarium rot, with 25.5% in the conventional and 19.0% in the organic systems. Incidence of Phomopsis rot was higher in the conventional crop (11.0%) than in the organic crop (2.0%). Anthracnose severity was estimated using a diagrammatic scale, and corresponded to 34.1% in organic fruits and 39.8% in conventional ones. Organic fruits were bigger, and presented greater skin thickness, less pulp content and greater soluble solids amount. Shrinkage indexes of fruit from both cropping systems did not differ. The results suggest the adoption of phyto sanitary control in the field and during post harvest stage aiming fruits with better quality.
Passiflora edulis; diseases; quality
