Intermittent Warming Reduces Chilling Injury and Decay of Tomato Fruit

Mature‐green and early breaker tomato fruit ( Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) cv‘Dario F‐150’treated with 0.5g liter ‐1 iprodione were stored at 6, 9 and 12°C for 28 days. Intermittent warmings for 1 day at 20°C were applied every week on all fruits. They were subjected to post‐storage ripening for 4 days at 20°C. On tomatoes from both maturity stages, intermittent warming during four cycles of 6 days at 9°C and 1 day at 20°C prevented development of chilling injury and decay, enhanced surface color and loss of firmness (compared with continuous 9°C storage), (delayed shriveling, and resulted in the lowest total losses at the end of storage and at the end of post‐storage ripening.