Permanent crops rely heavily on pesticides. Their short-term behaviour has already been characterised under laboratory conditions. However, their degradation in the field is still poorly understood. Furthermore, studies that relate pesticide residues in soil with their application history are still scarce, despite their relevance for inferring the historical and diffuse dimensions of pollution. This work explores the spatial and temporal dynamics of pesticide residues in soil under the light of their application records and the accuracy of the predicted environmental concentrations (PEC). To achieve these purposes, 270 soil samples were collected at 5 sampling times over the 2022 growing season, in 18 peach orchards from east-central Portugal. Moreover, the data extracted from the application records was used to obtain predicted levels which were compared with the measured results. A total of 37 residues were analysed. Overall, 32 of these were detected back in, at least, one sample. Glyphosate and AMPA were the most frequently found and had the highest median concentrations. The comparison between predicted and measured environmental concentrations (MEC) suggests that pesticide decay was generally slower than expected. Glyphosate, AMPA, fluopyram and tebuconazole showed a high potential for resulting in background concentrations in soil. Our results highlight the need for regular and comprehensive monitoring, being recommended long-term assessments of the persistence and fate of pesticides under realistic conditions. Furthermore, our results also stress the necessity of more studies on reasons for PEC-MEC mismatch, a factor of concern considering the regulatory relevance of PEC values.

Sweet cherry is a highly appreciated seasonal fruit with a high content of bioactive compounds; however, this highly perishable fruit has a relatively short shelf-life period. Here, we evaluated the evolution of the physicochemical and sensory qualities of sweet cherries (Prunus avium (L.) cv. Satin) under different storage conditions, namely at a Farmers’ Organization (FO) and in a Research Centre (RC) under normal and four different conditions of controlled atmosphere for 49 days. Additional parameters were monitored, such as rotten fruit incidence and stem appearance. Temperature was the factor that most influenced the fruit quality changes over the study time. In fact, fruits stored at higher mean temperatures showed higher weight loss, higher variation in CIE-Lab colour parameters, higher firmness loss, and browner and more dehydrated stems and were less appealing to the consumer. Controlled atmosphere conditions showed a smaller decrease in CIE-Lab colour parameters and lower weight loss. The incidence of rotting was very low and was always equal or lower than 2% for all conditions. Thus, RC chamber conditions were able to sustain fruit quality parameters over 28 days under normal atmosphere conditions and 49 days under controlled atmosphere conditions.

Peach is a very perishable climacteric fruit whose firmness may decay rapidly depending on the temperature. Refrigeration is usually used to delay ripening and maintain fruit quality. However, refrigeration management is often not optimized. This work aims to characterize the refrigeration conditions (temperature and humidity) of 3 peach producers of Beira Interior region, Portugal. Additionally, correlate those conditions with peach quality evolution comparing 2 peach cultivars – Royal Summer and Royal Time – with similar harvest dates but different acidity content. The 3 refrigeration chambers monitored have very distinct conditions of average air temperature, namely 8.29±3.53 °C (local C), 5.50±0.88 °C (local G) and 0.80±0.83 °C (local L). At harvest time ‘Royal Summer’ firmness was 6.61 kgf and ‘Royal Time’ was 5.20 kgf. Fruit firmness decreases faster for ‘Royal Time’ cultivar than for ‘Royal Summer’. The results suggest that in general farmers use inadequate range temperature for a long conservation period. However, for short periods, 7 to 10 days, conditions near those of local G allow good quality fruits maintenance without lacking of ripening or problems of chilling injury, and, simultaneously, save energy that is also not only a desirable international goal but also contributes to decreasing of production costs.

The irrigation patterns in two peach orchards, located in the central eastern region of Portugal, called “Beira Interior”, and the effect of different amounts of irrigation on the total production and fruit quality were evaluated. The experiment was conducted in 2016, in two different orchards, and included three treatments correspondent to three different flow rates per tree: 8, 12 and 16 l/hour. The water balance, which included the water supplied by rain and irrigation and the crop evapotranspiration, was developed. At harvest, crop production, pulp firmness and percentage of the total soluble solids were evaluated. There were no significant differences between treatments in the average production per tree. However, in one of the orchards production increased with the volume of irrigation. In the same orchard, fruit firmness decreased with the increasing water supply. Total soluble solids had decreased with the increasing water supply in both orchards, probably as a consequence of the dilution effect due, directly, to the water incorporated in the fruits, or, indirectly, to the larger fruits produced by the trees that were irrigated more. In general, the treatments used in this study as well as in the farmers’ practices, the supplied water was in deficit, but the farmers tend empirically to follow closely the evolution of evapotranspiration. Keywords: Deficit irrigation, Peach tree, Production, Total soluble solids, Fruit firmness

Snacks are commonly eaten in western societies and, because of that, have a non-negligible effect on consumers’ health. The main objective of this work was to develop and optimize a snack formulation with sweet cherry, an important crop from the Portuguese region of Beira Interior and which has a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). The experimental design and the optimization process were based on the Response Surface Methodology. In order to achieve that, a factorial design was implemented with three factors (almond and honey content, and baking time) and five response variables (water activity, antioxidant activity, mesophilic count, flavour and texture), and three repetitions of the central point. The optimization resulted in a formulation with 50 g 100 g-1 of sweet cherry, 35 g 100 g-1 of almond, 15 g 100 g-1 of honey, baked in the oven at 120 ºC for 13 min. The nutritional analysis showed that this product could be labelled with some nutritional claims, such as “low saturated fat”, “with no added sugar”, “salt free” and “source of fibre”.

The irrigation patterns in two peach orchards located at the region Beira Interior, south of "Gardunha" Mountain, and the effect of different amount of irrigation in the gross production and fruits quality were evaluated. The experiment was conducted in 2016, in two different orchards, and included three treatments correspondent to three different flow rate per tree: 8, 12 and 16 l/hour. The soil moisture was evaluated periodically with a FDR probe (DIVINER 2000), and the water balance included the water supply by rain and irrigation and the crop evapotranspiration. At harvest crop production, pulp firmness and percentage of total soluble solids were evaluated. There were no significant differences between treatments in the average production per tree. However, in one of the orchards production increased with the volume of irrigation. In the same orchard, the pulp firmness decreased with the increasing water supply. Total soluble solids had decreased with the increasing water supply in both orchards, probably as a consequence of the dilution effect due, directly, to the water incorporate in the fruits, or, indirectly, to the larger fruits produced by the more irrigated trees. In general, in the treatments used in this study as well as in the farmer's practices, the supplied water was in deficit, but the farmers tend empirically to follow closely the evolution of evapotranspiration.