Effects of organic fertilization on fruit yield and quality of Feicheng peach (Prunus persica cv. Feicheng)

An experiment was conducted for 3 continuous years to study the effects of different organic fertilizers (cattle manure, chicken manure, sheep manure, pig manure and mixed manure) on fruit yield and quality of Feicheng peach in order to provide the theoretical foundations for high yield and quality. The results show that compared with the CK, differences of the single fruit weight are not significant, while the yields are all increased significantly. Compared with the CK, contents of chlorophyll a, b, a+b and carotenoids are increased. The daily trend of Pn is highlowhighlow under the organic fertilizer treatments, the peaks are at 11：30 (higher peak) and 15：30(lower peak ), and are highest under the mixed manure treatment at 11：30, which is 21.5mol/(m2﹒s), and under the chicken manure treatment at 15：30,which is 18.6mol/(m2﹒s). The fruit firmness is increased significantly under the chicken manure treatment compared with CK. The nutritive indexes such as total soluble solids（TSS）, total soluble solids / titrable acids (TSS/TA) and vitamin C(Vc) , are increased under the organic fertilizer treatments, and the contents of TSS are increased significantly under all treatments except the pig manure. The contents of TSS/TA are increased significantly under the sheep manure, pig manure and mixed manure treatments, and by 17.40%, 7.14% and 15.60% respectively. The variety and contents of main aroma components are increased under all treatments. The relative contents of green note components are lower than those of the CK, while the fruity note and sweet note are higher than those of the CK, and these results indicate that aroma has the tendency of transforming from green note to fruity note and sweet note. Besides, the characteristic flavor compounds such as ethyl acetate, acetic acid, methyl formate, hexyl acetate and methyl propionate, 2-Hexen-1-ol and (Z)-4-Hexen-1-ol, (E)-2-Hexenal and 2,4-Hexadienal, and benzaldehyde are tested. Taken together, the nutrition and aroma quality are both improved under all organic fertilizers treatments, therefore the organic fertilizer application is strongly recommended in production of Feicheng peach.