Lokesh Yadav, D.K. Varu, V. K. Patel, V.B. Mor and Swati Ganvit
Abstract
An experiment was conducted to study the pre and post harvest treatment on quality of papaya at Fruit Research Station, Lalbaug & P.G. Research Laboratory, Department of Horticulture, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh during 2013. The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (Factorial) consisting two factors with three replications. There were two factors comprised pre harvest spray i.e. water spray (S1), GA3 15 ppm (S2), Alar 500 ppm (S3), GA3 15 ppm + carbendazim 0.05% (S4) and Alar 500 ppm + caobendazim 0.05% (S5) along with post harvest treatment i.e. water (D1), CaCl2 1% (D2) and Ca(NO3)2 (D3). The pre harvest spray and post harvest dip individually as well as their combinations were found to be more effective and significant for biochemical parameters and organoleptic score. Highest TSS, lowest acidity, highest ascorbic acid, total sugar and vitamin A were recorded in pre harvest spray with GA3 @ 15 ppm + carbendazim 0.05% (S4) as well as post harvest dip in CaCl2 1% (D2) during all days of storage. The similar trend was also noted for organoleptic score and significantly highest score of color, flavour, texture, taste and overall acceptability were registered in pre harvest treatment (S4) and post harvest treatment D2. But, the interaction was found significant only for taste and overall acceptability.