Pl. Hurst et al., STORAGE ROTS, COMPOSITIONAL ANALYSIS, AND SENSORY QUALITY OF 3 CULTIVARS OF BUTTERCUP SQUASH, New Zealand journal of crop and horticultural science, 23(1), 1995, pp. 89-95
The susceptibility of 'Delica' buttercup squash (Cucurbita maxima D.)
harvested at different maturities to develop rots in storage is report
edly associated with aspects of flesh composition. The flesh compositi
on and incidence of storage rots of two new cultivars of buttercup squ
ash-'Kaboten' and 'Hybrid 176', were compared with 'Delica' to see if
this association extended across cultivars. Sensory quality of the new
cultivars was also compared with 'Delica', the New Zealand export ind
ustry standard. 'Kaboten' had a lower proportion of fruit with rots be
tween 4 and 16 weeks of storage at 12 degrees C but there was no diffe
rence among cultivars during the 0-6 weeks field-to-market period for
export squash. After 20 or more weeks of storage, a high proportion of
fruit (10-30%) of all cultivars had rots. Although there were composi
tional differences among cultivars, they were not associated with stor
age life. 'Kaboten', the better keeping cultivar, could not be disting
uished from 'Delica' by dry matter (DM), starch, sugar, or titratable
acid levels. 'Delica' was the most liked cultivar and 'Kaboten' and 'H
ybrid 176' were rated equally behind 'Delica'. 'Hybrid 176' had a drie
r texture than the other cultivars and this was probably the result of
its higher DM and starch contents at harvest.