Abstract
Although monitoring of the growth conditions in terms of the Brix value (soluble solid content), in storage roots of asparagus is important to manage cultivation, there is no standard measurement protocol. In the current study, to elucidate the distribution and fluctuation of Brix values, the lengths from the bulbil base of the storage roots of 1-year-old asparagus plants were measured for 6 months. The results indicated that the Brix values in the samples, at a distance of 10 cm from the bulbil base of 30-cm-long storage roots approximately reflected the mean value of the storage roots. Moreover, a method of softening the storage root samples by the freeze-thaw process was tested to simplify the process of collecting squeezed juice samples. The Brix values of storage roots of asparagus plants observed in this study were little affected by the freeze-thaw process. Hence, we propose a protocol to measure the Brix value of the storage root of 1-year-old asparagus at a distance of 10 cm from the bulbil base of 30-cm-long storage roots after freezing and thawing.
