Investigation of Pre Harvest Spray and Post Harvest Dipping on Physical Characteristics of Papaya (Caricapapaya L.) Cv. Madhubindu

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of pre harvest spary and post harvest dipping on physical characteristics of papaya (Carica papaya L.) cv. Madhubindu was carried out at Fruit Research Station, Lalbaug& P.G. Research Laboratory Department of Horticulture, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh, during 2013. The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (Factorial) in two factors with three replications. The treatment were comprised of five pre harvest spray i.e. water spray (S₁), GA₃15 ppm (S₂), Alar 500 ppm (S₃), GA3 15 ppm+carbendazim 0.05% (S₄) and Alar 500 ppm + caobendazim 0.05% (S₅) along with three post harvest dipping i.e. water (D₁), CaCl₂ 1% (D₂) and Ca(NO₃)₂ (D₃). The pre harvest spray of GA₃15 ppm + carbendazim 0.05% and post harvest dipping in CaCl₂1% as well as their combination (S₄D₂) were found to be more effective in reducing physiological loss in weight, highest percentage of marketable fruit, lower percentage of ripened fruit, lowest days to start ripening and highest shelf life. However, it was found at par with treatment S₄ for pre harvest spray and D₂ for post harvest dipping. Similarly poor performance was observed in control in both the cases. The interaction effect was also found significant and better performance was noted in treatment combination S₄D₂for all parameters.