Progressive Out-of-Season Harvests of Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill.: Quality Traits of Fruit in Response to Weather Variability

Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill., also named Cactus pear, is a crop widespread in many countries with Mediterranean and subtropical climates, where it represents a valuable source of food. However, in southern Europe, this fruit market is limited to a few months, from summer to autumn. The possibility to extend the ripening period of fruit is represented by the special pruning of the first bloom flush and consequent new development of late flowers and fruits. Extending the cultivation period would allow farmers to maximize the crop’s potential, thereby extending the Cactus pear market season throughout much of the year. In this study, conducted in southern Sardinia (Italy), progressive pruning was applied with the aim of evaluating the fruit characteristics in relation to this type of cultivation, also considering the weather conditions during the experimental period. Morphological traits and physicochemical compositions of fruit picked in four harvests during two sampling seasons from August 2022 to March 2023, and from August 2023 to March 2024 were compared. According to principal component analysis (PCA), most of the observed characters showed significant differences among harvest periods but also between the two seasons of cultivation (year of cultivation: r = 0.722 on PC1), suggesting that the meteorological trend strongly modulated fruit traits. Some fruit qualities were partially lost during the winter months, such as juice acidity and total soluble solids (TSS). October was the month with the highest TSS levels (13.5 ± 0.25), followed by August, January and March. On the other hand, juiciness and fresh weight remained unchanged or even improved in fruit harvested out-of-season. As observed in the redundancy analysis (RDA) a contribution of 54% due to weather variability emerged. In Particular, TSS levels, pH and juice dry matter were associated with high temperatures, solar radiation, and wind intensity. Wind speed was also moderately linked with betalain content. Moreover, high relative humidity was associated with lower pH values, higher water content, and higher fruit fresh weight. A significant difference was found between the two years in betalains content (80.0 ± 3.7 µg·mL−1 in 2022–2023 and 28.2 ± 2.5 µg·mL−1 in 2023–2024). The breakdown in the 2023–2024 season was likely due to the strong heat wave of July 2023 (up to 47 °C), which caused their partial degradation. In light of seasonal variability, this work provides some useful insights for future management of Cactus pear, also considering the possibility of usefully extending the period of cultivation and harvesting.