Effect of Some Pre-harvest Treatments on Yield and Fruit Quality of

M. Khalifa, Sobhy

doi:10.21608/assjm.2018.116148

Effect of Some Pre-harvest Treatments on Yield and Fruit Quality of "Swelling" Peach Trees

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Sobhy M. Khalifa

Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

10.21608/assjm.2018.116148

Abstract

This study was carried out during the two successive seasons of 2016 and 2017 in order to study the effect of some pre-harvest treatments. i.e. ascorbic acid (AsA), citric acid (CiA), salicylic acid (SA) each at (400 and 600 ppm), gibberellic acid (GA₃) at (50 and 100 ppm), and calcium chloride (CaCl₂) at (1 and 2%(w/v)) on the yield and fruit quality of nine years old Swelling peach trees (Prunuspersica L.) growing in sandy soil,under drip irrigation system. Results showed that GA₃ at 100 ppm and CaCl₂ at 2 % gave the highest values of total yield,also GA₃ at 100 ppm significantly increased fruit weight, size and fruit firmness as compared with other treatments in both seasons. Both AsA and CiA at 600 ppm caused the highest increase in TSS % ,total sugars andanthocyanin contents, while both AsA at 400 and 600 ppm and CiA at 600 ppm were caused increasing in fruit TSS/ acid ratio in both seasons. Meanwhile, GA₃ at 100 ppmsignificantly increased fruit acidity, chlorophyll a and b contents as compared with the other treatments. Generally, it could be concluded that, gibberellic, salicylic acids and calcium chloride markedly increased yield, fruit firmness and fruit chlorophyll a and b content as compared with all other treatments.

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