Effect of pre and post -harvest treatments on storage and quality of banana cv. Nendran

Abstract

The present investigations were carried out in the College of Horticulture, during the year 1978-1980. The objectives were to study (i) the growth and development of banana fingers cv. Nendran and to fix optimum tine for harvest (ii) the effect of pre-harvest sprays of growth regulators on post harvest quality of the fruits (iii) the effect of different storage methods on prolonging the shelf life and (iv) to assess the efficacy of different fungicidal treatments on controlling anthraonose disease of ripened fruits. Fruit growth in rainfed ‘Nendran’ was found to be a continueous process till it reaches maximum maturity at 90 days after shooting. The length, girth, volume and weight of fingers continued to increase rapidly during early stages of growth, accounting for 90 per cent of growth by 60 days after shooting. The accumulation of dry matter and the starch took place at increasing rates during the first two month of fruit growth resulting an increase in specific gravity from 0.36 at shooting to more than one after 70 days of shooting and pulp to peel ratio from 0.32 to 1.50 on 70th day. The study showed that rainfed ‘Nandran’ can be harvested from 70 days after shooting without impairing the quality but with light reduction in quantity. The growth regulators if applied as pre-harvest sprays on 60th day after shooting increases size, weight and quality of the fruits; the maximum Increase in size and weight was resulted by the application of 2, 4-D at 10 ppm. The quality was improved by way of increased TSS, total and reducing sugars by treatments of ethrel 400 ppm, NAA 50 ppm, 100 ppm and 2, 4-D at 4 ppm and 10 ppm. Improvement in quality followed by growth regulator application was more evident in ease of 70th day harvest than the harvest at full maturity. The comparative study of different storage methods have revealed that, the polythene bag with potassium permanganate increases the storage life by 10 days, polythene bag alone by 6 days as compared to smoke treatment and open storage. Eventhough the fruits in polythene bag with and without KMnO4 showed a reduction on TSS, total and reducing sugar content, the appearanoe of the fruits were much better than that of smoked fruits and open stored fruites and the eating quality were also good. The study on the Incidence of anthracnoae disease In the storage showed that all the fungicides used at both concentration viz. anthracol at 0.05% and 0.1 % Bavistin 500 ppm and 1000 ppm; Thiride 0.1% and 0.2%| were equally effective In reducing the black spot development on ripened fruits. Though few spots were present In spite of the treatments, the quality and colour were not effected. Among the storage conditions. Polythene bag + KMnO4 showed least lncidence of the spots while It was maximum In case of smoke treatment.