Effect of ethephon application on harvest and quality properties of sour cherry fruit cv. "Erdi jubileum"

Harvesting of sour cherries is very difficult task which is done either by machine or hand. In order to facilitate fruits harvesting ethephone with different densities is used. In this research work Iranian produced ethephone with density of 1.18 g/cm³ and England produced ethephone with density of 1.45 g/cm³ was utilized with different concentration (0, 150, 225 and 300) in a 2×4 factorial experiment for types and concentrations of ethephone on fruit detachment force from pedicle, fruit abscission percentage and some of fruits quantitative as well as qualitative properties. Type of ethephone hormone only has significantly affected properties such as fruits weight, fruit detachment force from pedicle, abscission fruit percentage and soluble solid content (°Brix) while did not have significant effect on average 1000 pit weight flesh/pit ratio, fruit diameter, fruit firmness, pH, titratable acidity, suger/acid ratio and color characteristics. The increasing concentration of ethephon decreased fruit detachment force from pedicle, firmness and titrateable acidity and increased brix°, fruit weight and fruit abscission percentage.