Investigation and determination the effect of harvest time and preservation condition on storage life of orange variety Valencia.

In order to determine the effect of harvest time and preservation condition on storage life of orange variety Valencia an experiment based on factorial as complete block randomized design in three replications in gardens of Agriculture Research Center of Jiroft from February 2005 during two years was conducted. In this experiment harvest time was considered as factor A in five levels (January 20st, February 5th, February 20th, March 5th, March 20th), the condition of preservation was considered as factor B in three levels (4, 6, 8 0c), and relative humidity 85 90% and period of preservation in fridge in four levels (60, 90, 120, 150 days after harvest) were considered as factor C. Fruit weight, flesh weight, peel weight, water content, fruit pulp, TSS, TA, TSS/TA and vitamin C of samples were measured at harvest time and during storage. Results showed that harvest time had significant difference, in all studied qualities (P0/01) storage temperature had significant difference only on TSS/TA and vitamin C (p 0/01). Period of preservation had significant difference on all studied qualities (p0/01) except TSS. Also interaction between harvest time and store temperature had no significant difference on studied qualities, however interaction between harvest time and period of preservation had significant difference (p0/01) on TA, TSS and vitamin C. Interaction between period of preservation and store temperature had significant difference on TSS/TA, TA (p0/01) and peel weight, fruit weight (p0/01). Finally interaction between harvest time, period of preservation and store temperature had significant difference on marc and fruit weight (p0/01), peel weight (p0/05) but had no significant difference on other qualities Keywords: Valencia orange, harvest time, Jiroft, temperature, storage life