Effect of fruit bagging, reflective mulch and foliar potassium spray on coloration and postharvest life of apple cv. Fuji Zehn Aztec under Kashmir conditions

The present study was carried out on fruit bagging, reflective mulch and foliar potassium spray on coloration and postharvest life of apple cv. Fuji Zehn Aztec in high-density Apple block at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Shalimar, Srinagar. Treatments consisted of fruit bagging done at two time periods (4 and 6 weeks after petal fall), reflective mulch at two different widths (100cm and 75 cm), potassium sulphte spray at two concentrations (0.50% and 0.75%) and all 4 combinations of reflective mulch and potassium sulphate spray, constituting total 11 treatments. The study revealed that improvements with respect to fruit color and anthocyanin content were observed by all the treatments over control, the treatment consisting of potassium sulphate spray@0.75% + polyethylene reflective mulch (100 cm) proved to be most appreciating wherein figures regarding fruit color (22.93 a*, 37.36 h⁰) and anthocyanin content (12.09 mg/100g) was above the values as recorded under other treatments. Further, there was no significant effect of different treatments on storability as physiological loss in weight of fruits was not affected significantly by any treatment. However, the treatment potassium sulphate spray@0.75% + polyethylene reflective mulch (100cm) significantly increased the TSS (18.80, 18.95, 19.12, 19.32%) during storage at 0, 10, 20 and 30 days respectively at ambient conditions as compared to other treatments, while the maximum fruit firmness (11.78, 11.70, 11.52, 10.95 kg/cm²) was retained by treatment control. The study indicated that Fuji apple showed positive responses to the application of fruit bagging, reflective mulch, and foliar potassium spray in increasing fruit color, which is otherwise the main problem in Fuji apples.