Identification of Suitable Budwood Source through Quality Assessment of Avocado (Persea americana Mill.)

Abstract

Avocado (Persea americana Mill.)  is gaining increasing global appeal and has received massive marketing and distribution due to its significant nutritional benefits for human health. There is little or no history on how the fruit was introduced into the country. However, raising suitable planting materials continues to be a challenge. Thus, the study sought to identify suitable budwood sources through fruit quality assessments. Mature, bruised-free fruits were harvested from five different trees at New Koforidua in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The experimental design for this study was a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with five replicates. Twenty-five fruits were selected from each tree for data collection and fruit analysis. The parameters studied were the physical properties (fruit weight, fruit firmness, seed weight, pulp weight, peel weight, fruit length and fruit diameter) and chemical properties [chemical composition, pH, total titratable acids (TTA) and total soluble solids (TSS)]. A sensory analysis was also conducted. The statistics were subjected to the Statistix version 10 and the means were separated using the LSD at an alpha level of 0.01. Significant differences were found in the seed weight, pulp weight, fruit length and diameter respectively, at an alpha value (p≤0.01) with “tree F” showing the highest recordings (92.03±5.57) for seed weight, (267.84±569) for pulp weight, (13.90±0.32) for fruit length and (8.44±0.12) for diameter, respectively. There was a progressive reduction in the fruit weight and fruit firmness over a period of seven and five days, respectively. There was a significant difference in the TSS and TTA at an alpha value of 0.01 with treatment J and treatment H recording the highest values of (0.36±0.02) and (1.18±0.07), respectively. The study showed that fruits of treatment F possess superior qualities than the rest of the varieties and can be a suitable budwood source.