Indian Journal of Ecology

The pre-harvest treatments were applied during two seasons viz., winter (season-1) (Salicylic acid during 1^st week of October and CaCl₂ during 2^nd week of November) and summer (season-2) (Salicylic acid during 1^st week of January and CaCl₂ during 2^nd week of February) in ‘Kalipatti’ cultivar of sapota. The results of the study revealed that pre-harvest application of 2000 ppm salicylic acid + 1.5 % CaCl₂ significantly influenced physical parameters like fruit weight (89.78 and 88.34g), fruit length (5.73 and 5.66cm), fruit diameter (5.61 and 5.58cm), fruit volume (83.88 and 82.76cc), pulp weight (77.80 and 76.18g), peel weight (9.59 and 9.46g) and seed: pulp ratio (0.022 and 0.022) during winter and summer seasons, respectively. Same treatment recorded highest yield (165.90 kg tree^-1) and shelf-life (10.46 and 10.35 days) during winter and summer seasons. Whereas, highest benefit: cost ratio was recorded in treatment 2000 ppm salicylic acid + 1.0 % CaCl₂ (1.64) which followed by 1000 ppm Salicylic acid + 1.0 % CaCl₂ (1.60) and 2000 ppm Salicylic acid + 1.5 % CaCl₂ (1.56).