Southern Brazil is a traditional apple-growing region. However, new less cold-demanding cultivars are making the cultivation of apples viable in other Brazilian regions, such as in the state of Minas Gerais, where the crop is in a remarkable expansion. The quality attributes of the fruits are important both to the industrialization and the fresh consumption. In this sense, this work was aimed at characterizing fruits of different less-cold demanding apple cultivars established on the Mantiqueira Mountains, South of Minas Gerais. The experiment was conducted in an experimental orchard in Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária de Minas Gerais EPAMIG (Minas Gerais Agricultural Research Company - EPAMIG) in the municipality of Maria da Fé south of Minas Gerais. Fruits of of eight apple cultivars from six-year-old plants were evaluated (Michal, Ein Shemer, Soberana, Galícia, Eva, IAC 2079, Condessa and Anna). Fruit mass, transversal diameter, longitudinal diameter, fruit firmness, production, total acidity (TA), total soluble solids (TSS), TA/TSS ratio, pH and fruit yield were recorded for each cultivar. The cultivars Anna and Condessa yielded the largest fruits; cv. Eva produced the firmest and the highest yielding cultivar; cv. Anna produced the softest fruits, while Galicia and IAC 2079 produced fruits of the most balanced flavor.
Malus sp; cultivars; fruit quality
