Irrigation intervals affect physicochemical quality attributes and skin cracking in litchi fruit

Authors : Abdur RAB

Pages : 553-562

Doi:10.3906/zoo-1204-24

View : 14 | Download : 9

Publication Date : 2012-10-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :The influence of irrigation intervals on the physicochemical quality attributes and fruit cracking of litchi cultivars was investigated by irrigating 4 litchi cultivars at intervals of 3, 6, and 9 days. It was found that cultivars Gola and Bedana had the highest and lowest fruit weight insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(21.90 g and 14.31 g);, pulp weight insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(16.478 g and 10.85 g);, total soluble solids insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(22.16% and 16.37%);, total sugars insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(21.22% and 15.28%);, and fruit cracking insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(41.60% and 10.40%);. While cultivar Gola also had the highest reducing sugars insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(18.01%); but the lowest nonreducing sugars insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(3.80%);, cultivar Bedana had the lowest reducing sugars insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(5.68%); and the highest nonreducing sugars insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(10.02%);. Similarly, cultivar Bedana had the highest skin strength insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(3.33 kg cm-2); compared to the lowest insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2.16 kg cm-2); in cultivar Gola. The highest skin calcium content insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(4.916 mg 100 g-1 DW); was recorded in cultivar Surahi, while boron was the highest insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(0.112 mg 100 g-1 DW); in cultivar China. In contrast, Bedana had the lowest calcium insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(3.976 mg 100 g-1 DW); and boron insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(0.10 mg 100 g-1 DW); contents. The fruit and pulp weight decreased significantly with an irrigation interval of 9 days but the fruit cracking percentage increased significantly from 20.48% at a 3-day irrigation interval to 27.55% and 31.45% at irrigation intervals of 6 and 9 days, respectively. Increasing irrigation intervals decreased the skin strength and calcium content of the fruit but increased the reducing sugars and ion leakage from skin disks. The data suggest that both pulp and skin characteristics of litchi fruit may determine fruit cracking susceptibility and that increasing the irrigation intervals promotes the incidence of cracking.
Keywords : Key words Cracking, irrigation, litchi skin strength, quality