Influence of pre- and post-harvest treatments on shelf-life and quality attributes of ber fruits

An experiment was conducted to observe the effects of pre-harvest treatments followed by storage under different packaging materials on shelf-life and quality of ber cv. Seb fruits during storage at ambient conditions (35 ± 5°C; 65 ± 5% RH). The physiological loss in weight was maximum (46.0%) in control (P₀ = Packing under simple paper bags of grey colour) after storage, while lowest reduction (2.8%) in packed poly bags (ziplocked with pinhead holes) (P₆ treatment) even after 10 days of storage. The later treatments recorded merely 66% of darker fruits that the other treatments (100%). Highest shriveled and undesirable fruits were also observed under control. Vitamin C and titrable acidity decreased continuously but total soluble solids (TSS) and total sugars increased initially and decrease afterwards. The highest TSS (23.66°Brix) was observed for the tree which received pre-harvest spray of (on tree canopy 45 days before harvesting) CaCl₂ (0.4%) + boric acid (1.0%) and TSS substantially reduced (17.6°Brix) under control (pre-harvest spray with normal water). Average fruit weight also improved (24.58 g) in trees receiving pre-harvest spray with 0.4% CaCl₂. Boric acid (1.0%) also drastically reduced fruit length (3.18 cm) and diameter (3.24 cm), while CaCl₂ (0.4%) positively affected the fruit size (3.52 and 3.56 cm). Thus, the pre-harvest spray of CaCl₂ (0.4%) + boric acid (1.0%) coupled with completely packed poly bags (ziplocked with pinhead holes) was efficient in prolonging the shelf-life and quality of ber fruits.