Effect of Pre-harvest Nutrients Application and Bag ging on Quality and Shelf Life of Mango ( Mangifera indica L.) Fruits cv . Amrapali

Abstract

The present experiment was conducted to study the e ffect of pre-harvest bagging and spray of CaCl 2 and K 2 SO 4 on quality and shelf life of mango fruits cv . Amrapali during two succeeding years. Trees of Amrapali mango were sprayed three times at 30, 20, and10 days before harvesting and bagging with brown paper bag 20 days before harvesting of fruits. Harvested fruits were stored under the ambi ent temperature (storage at room temperature) and observations were taken at three d ays intervals upto 18 days. The results indicated that the pre-harvest treatment of 2% CaCl 2 +1% K 2 SO 4 +bagging was found superior to improve the quality of fruits in respect of highest fruits weight, firmness, TSS, ascorbic acid, total sugars, and β -carotene content with minimum black spotted fruits per cent and maintained it throughou t the storage period upto 18 days. Fruits treated with 2% CaCl 2 +1% K 2 SO 4 +bagging showed shelf life up to 12 days with lowest weight loss and highest organoleptic quality as against 6 days of untreated fruits (control). Keywords: Black spotting, CaCl 2 , K 2 SO 4 , Pre-harvest treatments, Storage.