Analysis of Cuticle Cracking in Cherry Tomatoes at Various Fruit Positions on the Same Truss and Its Impact on Post-harvest Physical Quality: A Study on Chika and Mini Carol Varieties

The cuticle layer is important in tomato fruit quality, maintaining moisture content and biotic and abiotic stresses. Fruit will be more easily damaged if the cuticle layer has cracked, which can occur microscopically, commonly called cuticle-cracking (CC). This study was conducted to determine the effect of fruit position on the CC severity by using two cherry tomato cultivars, Chika and Mini Carol. The fruit size decreased from the proximal end toward the middle position and then increased toward the distal end, while the CC severity was the opposite. In other words, fruit size and CC severity have a negative correlation and small fruit had higher CC severity. Further, microscopic observation revealed that the CC characteristics of the two cultivars were different. These differences appeared to influence fruit firmness, with ‘Chika’ exhibiting higher firmness than ‘Mini Carol’. However, the differences in CC did not seem to affect water loss among cultivars significantly.