Developmental Differences and Implications for Small and Large ‘Zesy002’ Kiwifruit

‘Zesy002’ ( Actinidia chinensis var. chinensis , sold commercially as Zespri SunGold Kiwifruit) now dominates the New Zealand kiwifruit industry and the global market for yellow‐fleshed kiwifruit. It is an inherently larger‐fruited cultivar than the traditional green‐fleshed “Hayward” fruit, with an average fruit mass of ∼120 g compared to ∼100 g for "Hayward." Despite the larger average fruit size, there may still be a significant proportion of small fruit in the harvest. It has been noticed that there are marked compositional differences between the larger and smaller fruit at harvest. To investigate this, large (120–150 g) and small (80–90 g) fruit on five orchards were monitored during maturation. The differences between large and small fruit were consistent across orchards. For seed colour change, the cessation of growth and nett starch loss, there appeared little difference between the large and small fruit. The most noticeable difference was in flesh colour and SSC at any given timepoint, with small fruit lagging ∼2 weeks behind large fruit. The off‐vine degreening of commercially picked and packed large and small fruit from three orchards was investigated at temperatures between 5°C and 15°C. Both large and small fruit had similar responses to temperature for degreening and softening.