Pre-harvest spray and low temperature storage (2 0C) effect on quality parameters of strawberry cv. Camarosa

Abstract

Strawberry is a temperate fruit with high demand in today’s market with fresh aroma. As the shelf-life of fruits are hardly around 2 days at normal room temperature. A pre-harvest application of chitosan, calcium chloride and their combinations were evaluated with the objective to delay senescence in the conducted experiment. Low temperature (at 2 0C) to check the spoilage was given during storage condition. The spray of chemicals at pre-harvest level was made before 10 days of harvesting and harvested fruits were made to quality parameters analysis at 2 days interval at low temperature storage condition. The maximum total sugar per cent was found highest in T12 (Chitosan 6 g/L + 1.5% CaCl2 - 6.32%) which was at par with T11 (Chitosan 6 g/L + 1% CaCl2 - 6.04%) while the lowest total sugar per cent was found in T1 (control - 4.22%). Ascorbic acid of strawberry fruits was found to be non-significant with the range of 55.95 mg/100g pulp to 71.05 mg/100g pulp. The minimum value of spoilage was recorded in T11 (3.57%). Spray of chemicals with the low temperature storage condition was quite effective in prolonging the shelf-life of strawberry fruits with fresh acceptance without deteriorating its composition and acceptance of consumer.