Improving quality of seedless Rawa pomegranate fruits by using bagging and spraying with calcium

Abstract

A study was\r\nconducted in the district of Rawa, which is located 224 km away from the city\r\nof Ramadi, on the pomegranate trees of the seedless Rawa cv. The study\r\ninvestigated the effect of fruit bagging and calcium spray in some qualitative\r\ncharacteristics of fruits. Two factors were studied during the research: the\r\nfirst factor involved using different types of bags to cover the fruits,\r\nincluding (uncovered control, double-layer muslin cloths, saran, and white\r\npaper bags). The second factor included calcium spraying at concentrations of\r\n0, 1, and 2 g per liter. The results indicated that fruit bagging treatments\r\nhad a significant effect on all studied characteristics. Saran bagging\r\ncontributed to achieving the best results for characteristics (TSS, total\r\nsugars, reducing sugars and ascorbic acid) at 13.06%, 15.28%, 11.65% and 5.03\r\nmg 100 ml-1, respectively. Furthermore, the treatment (B0) resulted\r\nin the lowest percentage of total acidity at 0.76%. As for the calcium spray,\r\nit showed a significant effect on all studied characteristics except for the percentage\r\nof total acidity. The high concentration (2 g liter-1) achieved the\r\nbest values for TSS, total sugars, reducing sugars and ascorbic acid, at 13.05%,\r\n14.94%, 11.83% and 5.10 mg 100 ml-1) respectively. The interaction\r\nbetween the two study factors reached a significant level of influence on all\r\nstudied characteristics except for the percentage of total acidity. The\r\ninteraction treatment (B2C2) excelled in achieving the best values for most of\r\nthe studied characteristics, while the control treatment (B0C0) showed the\r\nlowest values for the studied characteristics.