Postharvest application of salicylic acid enhances storage life and fruit quality of grapes

Grapes are extremely perishable and cannot be stored at ambient temperature for longer duration which is the chief cause for huge economic losses to the orchardists. Keeping this in view, different concentrations of salicylic acid (1 mM, 2 mM and 3 mM) as postharvest treatments were applied to grapes cv. ‘Flame Seedless’ to examine their effect on the storage life and fruit quality. The fruits were packed in low-density polyethene packaging with dual release grape guards and placed in corrugated fiber board boxes for up to 75 days at 0–2^oC and 90–95% RH. The results indicated that salicylic acid @ 2 mM significantly reduced postharvest lost in weight, decay incidence, rachis browning, berry shattering, organoleptic quality and membrane electrolyte leakage. The highest acidity, total phenolics and anthocyanin were found in fruits subjected to 3 mM salicylic acid application. The salicylic acid treated fruits demonstrated better consumer acceptability and fruit quality in storage and treatment seemed to be promising for maintenance of high quality in grapes cv. Flame seedless up to 60 days of storage.