Introduction. Opuntia ficus-indica fruit quality was
studied, in the main sites for cactus pear cultivation in Italy, with the ultimate goal of
understanding the main sources of variability and increasing crop value. Materials
and methods. A first study was carried out in 2006 on mature
Opuntia ficus-indica trees, cvs. Gialla and Rossa, grown in
ten commercial orchards located in the main sites for their cultivation in Italy. Trees
were managed to produce an out-of-season crop in October, through the removal of the
spring flush at bloom time, during the first week of June. Trees had a similar crop
[(52 ± 10) kg of fruits·tree–1], and no more than six fruits were left on each
of the fruiting cladodes. At commercial harvest time, indicated by the peel colour
breakage, 75 fruits in each orchard and 750 fruits for each site were picked, analysed and
evaluated by a consumer panel. A second experiment was carried out in 2006 on 8-year-old
O. ficus-indica trees, cv. Gialla, grown in a
commercial orchard. Within-tree factors, such as fruit position within the canopy, number
of fruits per tree and per cladode, and cladode dry weight were studied. Results and
discussion. Fruit weight, shape and total soluble solid content significantly
changed with the environmental conditions, i.e., site and altitude, while
flesh percent, pH and total titratable acidity did not. Cultivars had a significant
influence only on fruit weight and seed content. Fruit weight changed greatly within the
tree, while total soluble solid content and flesh percent variability was much reduced.
Fruit weight decreased with fruit number per tree and both fruit weight and total soluble
solid content decreased with more than six fruits per cladode. Light interception and
cladode dry weight were the main sources of fruit dry weight variability and sugar
content, while cladode surface area was poorly related to fruit quality. The role of
cultivars in determining fruit quality did not change with site and, moreover, the sensory
analysis was unable to discriminate for cultivar and environment.