Influence of air hanging stalks techniques in increasing shelf life of tomatoes

Abstract

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) is one of the most widely consumed fresh vegetables. But, it rapidly deteriorate soon after harvesting like other perishable fruits and vegetables. So, this study was conducted for development of a cheap storage technique of tomato for the benefit of the farmers. In the study tomatoes were harvested at different stages of maturity, viz., immature green, mature green, turning (breaker stage), pink, hard ripe and over ripe. It was observed that the air hanging stalk technique of tomato storage was far superior than farmers’ practice in all aspects. Again, among different stages of harvest, pink stage can be considered as the best in terms of storability and acceptability.