Effect of Foliar Application of Nutrients on Fruit Firmness, Cracking and Shelf Life in Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) Cultivar Early Large Red

摘要

An experiment was conducted during 2014-15 on 23 year old trees of litchi cultivar Early Large Red to study the effect of foliar application of different nutrients (calcium, zinc and boron) on fruit firmness, fruit cracking and shelf life. The maximumfirmness was recorded with calcium chloride at 1.00% (2.57 kg/cm~2) while minimum firmness under control (1.63 kg/cm~2). Calcium chloride at 2.00% concentration significantly increased the shelf life of litchi fruits. It was observed that borax at 0.80%concentration resulted consistently reduction in the fruit cracking followed by zinc sulfate at 1.50% concentration which was at par with foliar spray of nutrient borax at 0.60%. Borax at 0.80% concentra-tion reduced the fruit cracking about 77.12% with minimum cracked fruits (196.4 kg/acre) over control.