The effect of some treatments on pear fruit storability (Pyrus communis L. Coscia cv.)


Abstract in English

This investigation was done to study the effect of spray for two times with CaCl2 0.5% and 1%, high potassium fertilizer and dipping with 2% CaCl2, in addition to packaging with polyethylene films on the storability of pear fruits "Coscia C.V". The results showed the significant superiority of high potassium fertilizer treatment on the other treatments concerning total and single sugars after harvesting time, while there weren't significant differences between the other treatments concerning the remaining indicators. After four months of storage, the packaging treatments were able to the significantly reduction of weight loss, in addition to preserving the firmness and total soluble solids in the comparison with unpackaged ones, the average of weight loss in unpackaged treatments was 15% and 0.65% in packaging treatments, which led to stop the storage of unpackaged treatments and continue packaging treatments until 7 months. After 7 months, the results showed that the dipping with 2% CaCl2 revealed the high weight loss, while was the least with high potassium fertilizer treatment, on the other hand there were no significant differences between treatments for firmness, total soluble solids and tetra table acidity, while total and single sugars showed significant differences between treatments. Moreover, the sensory tests assured the importance of packaging with CaCl2 treatments to improve storability and quality of pear fruits, which CaCl2 1% packaging treatment got the highest values for most of sensory tests.

References used

Balmush, I. L. and E. G. Salkova. 1988. The effect of growing conditions on the activity and on molecular forms of malic enzyme in apple fruits during postharvest ripening. Izv. Akad. Nauk Moldavskoi SSR. Biologicheskich ikimicheskich Nauk: 24-27
Ben Mimoun, M. and M. Marchand. 2013. Effects of Potassium foliar fertilization on different fruit tree crops over five years of experiments. Acta Hort. 984: 211-217
Bhat, M. Y., F. A. Hafiza Ahsan , M. A. Banday, A. Dar, I. Wani, and G. I. Hassan. 2012. Effect of harvest dates, pre harvest calcium sprays and storage period on physic chemical characteristics of pear cv. Bartlett. E3 Journal of Agricultural Research and Development, 2(4): 101-106

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