Response of bagging on maturity, ripening and storage behaviour of 'winter guava'.

摘要

Uniform immature fruits of guava were bagged one month prior to harvest in nonrejuvenated (NR) and rejuvenated (R) trees to assess its impact on ripening and storage behaviour of Allahabad Safeda guava during winter season. Hard-green mature fruits were harvested, washed, surface-dried and packed in CFB boxes and stored under ambient conditions. Various storage attributes were studied at successive stages of storage. Bagged fruits were found superior than non-bagged fruits of both NR and R trees. Bagging induced early ripening characterized by high yellowness index, soft texture with excellent quality in terms of high TSS (11.5 degrees B) and low acidity (0.31%) than other treated fruits. But these fruits have short shelf life of 6 days as compared to the control, which had maximum shelf life of 9 days. These bagged fruits exhibited high rate of respiration along with ethylene evolution than other treatments. It is inferred from the present study that ripening and improvement in quality of winter guava can be achieved successfully by simple news paper bagging one month before harvest. In addition, rejuvenation of the guava tree can increase the yield and quality with prolonged shelf life..