Sunscald damage in attached and detached pepper and cucumber fruits at various stages of maturity

Attached and detached pepper and cucumber fruits at various stages of maturity were exposed to solar radiation. Sunscald incidence was affected by the colour of the fruits and whether or not they were attached to the plant. Detached fruit became warmer than attached ones, the former being more prone to suffer sunscald injuries. Light coloured mature-green peppers heated up less under insolation than dark-green ones, the latter showing higher incidence of damage. Red-ripe peppers and yellow-ripe cucumbers were resistant to sunscald injuries. Peppers at the mature-green and breaker stages of development, and mature-green and yellow-green cucumbers, were most susceptible in terms of sunscald. It was reasoned that chlorophyll is essential for sunscald development, and that fruit at stages characterized by chlorophyll disintegration, are highly susceptible to photo-oxidative processes.