Fruit morpho-biochemical characteristics of mango (Mangifera indica L.) cv. Dashehari during three fruit growth stages

Mango is the most important fruit crops in India having rich genetic diversity which has led to wide variation in the fruit morpho-biochemical characteristics of the fruit across stages of fruit development. Fruit harvesting at the mature stage is essential for marketing and product quality. Mango are usually harvested at the tapaka stage. Colour, flavour, taste and biochemical composition of mango fruits are the main quality parameters that are affected by the maturity stages. Maximum fruit length (97.62, 95.43 & 96.52 cm), breadth (61.07, 58.85 & 59.96 cm) were observed at mature stage of fruit. Whereas, the highest contents of TSS (°B), total sugar (%) and reducing sugars (14.15, 16.86 and 15.51 °Brix), (15.67, 13.74 and 14.71%) and (5.17, 4.56 and 4.89 %), were noted at full ripening stage respectively. While ascorbic acid and titratable acidity contents varied widely among developmental stages, the maximum were observed at egg stage (54.26, 50.54 and 52.40 mg-100-g^-1) and (0.24, 0.28 and 0.26 %), respectively. Morphological characters of fruits also showed a variety of features that were indicative of good quality mango fruits.