Assessment of pre-harvest fruit bagging on quality of litchi fruits cv. Rose Scented
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Date
2020-08
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
The present investigation was undertaken at Horticulture Research Centre, Patharchatta of G. B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, Udham Singh Nagar, Uttarakhand during the year 2019. The main aim of study was to see the effect of different bagging materials (pink polypropylene bags, white polypropylene bags, red polypropylene bags, blue polypropylene bags) and different bagging dates (55 days before harvest, 45 days before harvest, 35 days before harvest and 30 days before harvest) on the quality of litchi fruits. Findings revealed that white polypropylene bag had most effectively improved the physical as well as the chemical attributes of litchi viz. fruit retention, fruit cracking, peel colour, fruit weight, fruit volume, pulp weight, pulp to seed ratio, TSS, total sugars, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars, ascorbic acid and fruit peel anthocyanin content compare to different bagging materials used. Higher fruit weight, diameter, TSS with lower sun burn and minimum cracking were found in fruits bagged with white polypropylene bags. However, fruits bagged 30 days prior to harvest gave significant results for all the parameters. The benefit: cost ratio calculated for all the treatments showed that bagging of fruits 30 days before harvest with white polypropylene bags showed feasibility in litchi cultivation as the net return per rupee was 2.35. From the above findings, it is concluded that bagging of litchi fruits 30 days before the normal harvest with white polypropylene bags may be recommended to enhance the physico-chemical parameters. So, use of pre-harvest fruit bagging to get quality production of litchi fruits is recommended to farmers for better returns.