Preharvest 1-MCP Treatment as a New Tool to Mitigate Chilling Injury in Persimmon

Cold storage of “Rojo Brillante” persimmon requires a postharvest 1-MCP treatment to mitigate chilling injury, which manifests as marked firmness loss when the fruit is transferred to shelf-life conditions. Recently, preharvest 1-MCP application (Harvista®, HV) has proven effective in various crops but remains underexplored in persimmon. This work investigates the effect of HV application at different preharvest moments on fruit quality preservation during cold storage, compared to the conventional postharvest treatment under two commercial orchards. Preharvest 1-MCP treatment effectively mitigated chilling injury – associated softening after 40 storage days followed by shelf-life, retaining significantly higher firmness (>40 N) than control fruit (<8 N). HV treatment applied 3 days before harvest (HV3) resulted in higher firmness retention than when applied 7 days before harvest (HV7). The double application 7 and 3 days before harvest (HV7 + 3) did not provide additional effects. Combining pre- and postharvest 1-MCP offered no further benefit. The HV3 treatment showed significantly higher effect than the postharvest 1-MCP (SF) application, supporting the use of preharvest 1-MCP as a potential alternative to the conventional postharvest treatment in “Rojo Brillante” persimmon. The reduced softening induced by HV treatment was accompanied by lower relative expression of DkERF-18, DkERF-8, and DkERF-16, genes reported to be involved in ethylene biosynthesis and fruit quality traits. These findings provide valuable insights for optimizing “Rojo Brillante” persimmon postharvest management through the application of preharvest 1-MCP.