Foliar application of calcium chloride and borax affects the fruit skin strength and cracking incidence in litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) cultivars

摘要

The influence of foliar application of calcium chloride and borax calcium on fruit skin strength and cracking incidence in litchi (Litchi chinensis?Sonn.) fruit was investigated at 25 days interval and?also the?evaluation of fruit skin calcium and boron contents, skin strength, ion leakage from skin discs and fruit cracking in four litchi cultivars. Significant variations were observed in different litchi cultivars and CaCl2?and borax treatments. The means revealed that cultivar Gola had the highest fruit skin calcium content (7.67 mg/100 g DW), ion leakage from skin discs (31.11%) and fruit cracking (21.91%) but the least skin strength?(2.44?kg cm-2). Skin boron content was the highest in cultivars?Gola?(0.203?mg/100 g DW). Cultivar Bedana had the highest fruit skin strength (3.39 kg cm-2) and the least mean ion leakage (18.86%) and fruit cracking (13.26%). Foliar application of CaCl2?and borax significantly increased the mean fruit skin calcium content (4.79 mg/100 g DW),?boron content (0.109 mg/100 g DW), and skin strength (2.43 kg cm-2) from the least in?the?control to the highest? 8.88 mg/100 g DW ,? 0.247 mg/100 g DW and 3.01 kg cm-2?with CaCl2?3 + boron 1.5% treatment?respectively, while ion leakage (35.17%) and fruit cracking (25.40%) in?thecontrol decreased to 16.17 and 11.14% respectively with CaCl2?3%?+ boron 1.5% treatment. The Ca content of the litchi fruit skin in?the?control vs. Rest, control vs. CaCl2?and control vs. CaCl2?+ borax increased from 4.79 to 7.36 mg/100 g DW, 4.85 and 8.20 mg/100 g DW respectively. The boron content of the fruit skin also increased in?the?control vs. Rest (0.11 vs. 0.21 mg/100 g DW), control vs. CaCl2?(0.11 vs. 0.14 mg/100 g DW), control vs. CaCl2?+ Borax (0.11 vs. 0.23 mg/100 g DW) and CaCl2vs. CaCl2?+ Borax (0.14 vs. 0.23 mg/100 g DW) treatments. The mean ion leakage decreased from 35.17 in?the?control to 24.10% in control vs. Rest, 30.26% in control vs. CaCl2?and 22.05% in control vs. CaCl2+Borax. Similarly, the ion leakage decline from 30.06 to 22.05 in CaCl2?vs. CaCl2?+ Borax means.