Effect of bagging colour on fruit quality of wax apple (Syzygium samarangense (Blume) Merr. & Perry) 'Thabthimchan'

摘要

Wax apple is one of the important fruit crops of Thailand. The major problems of wax apple production in Thailand are fruit flies and birds. Farmers have to bag the fruit after fruit set with a white plastic bag to prevent fruit flies, but the white plastic bag cannot protect the fruit from birds. Six wax apple trees, 15 years old, were selected for the experiment. The fruit of each tree was bagged with 10 bags each of white, yellow, green, blue, red and black plastic bags. A total of 360 bags were used. The quality of fruit was recorded after harvest. The results showed that the width, length, weight, volume of fruit, TSS, TA, and TSS/TA were different among different treatments. The mean weights of the fruit were 145.52, 142.62, 140.70, 139.30, 137.43 and 126.42 g in the white, red, yellow, green, blue and black bagged groups, respectively. The TSS were 9.96, 9.73, 9.55, 9.53, 9.38 and 9.38 °Brix in the white, yellow, red, blue, green and black bagged groups, respectively. In conclusion, we recommend that red and yellow plastic bags can be used for bagging wax apples while the black colour is not recommended.