Zibda' mango fruits with all treatments significantly reduced the deterioration of physical and chemical characteristics. Moreover, this study confirmed that, the combination treatments effectively increased fruit storability and shelf life in comparison to individual treatments and untreated fruits (control). This study illustrated that, pre-harvest applications of 1% chitosan in combination with potassium silicate at 2000 or 3000 ppm and calcium chloride at 2 or 4% as coating treatments at two weeks before harvesting are the promising strategy for keeping postharvest quality and increasing storability of mangoes cv. 'Zibda' up to five weeks at 13ºC and 85-90 % RH.

Banana (Musa spp) is considered as one of the most important fruit crops in Egypt, where it occupy an area of 27.5 thousand ha. Field experiments on banana cv. Grand Nain for two consecutive seasons (2016 and 2017) were conducted in Horticulture Research Station located in El-Kanter Elkharia, Kaluobia Governorate. The main objective of this study was to investigate the possibility of reducing the mineral fertilizers applied to the banana crop by using compost and potassium silicate treatments. Three rates of compost (15, 20 and 25 kg per mate) were applied with 50% of the recommended rate of mineral fertilizers along with or without potassium silicate at a rate of 60 ml per mate. These treatments were compared with recommended rates of mineral fertilizers mixed with and without potassium silicate. Obtained results showed that application of compost led to enhance all studied parameters and recorded highly significant differences particularly under the treatments combined with potassium silicate and 50% of the recommended rate of mineral fertilizers. The highest level of compost with potassium silicate treatment recorded the uppermost values of growth, yield and quality of banana fruits. Moreover, the same treatment recorded significant increments in total sugar and T.S.S% in fruits as compared with the recommended dose of mineral fertilizers.

HE EFFECTIVENESS of postharvest treatments of sodium ………nitroprusside (SNP), oxalic acid (OA) and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) treatments and their combinations on postharvest quality and enzyme activity of 'Valencia' orange fruits were examined after harvest in season 2014 and 2015. The experiment were included the following treatments: distilled water (control), 1 mM SNP, 10 mM OA, 2% H 2 O 2 , 1 mM SNP + 10 mM OA, 1 mM SNP + 2% H 2 O 2 and 10 mM OA + 2% H 2 O 2 for 5 minutes. All treatments were stored at 8±1°C and 85-90% relative humidity (RH) followed by one week as a shelf life at ambient temperature 18-23°C and 55-65% RH for 15 weeks. All postharvst studied maintained postharvest quality of 'Valencia' oranges as compared to untreated fruits (control) during storage. Moreover, combined treatments were more effective than individual treatments. Treated 'Valencia' oranges with 1 mM SNP plus 10 mM OA or 2% H 2 O 2 alleviated decay incidence and reduced weight loss percentage with an increase of marketable fruit percentage. In addition, these applications reduced the activities of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and pectinase (PE) enzymes, while increased the activity of peroxidase (POX) enzyme. These treatments also decreased loss of firmness, hue angle, lightness values and juice content of fruits. In addition, these applications slowed the increase of soluble solids content (SSC) and SSC/TA ratio as well as decreased loss of titratable acidity (TA) and ascorbic acid contents during cold storage period followed by shelf life. Therefore, the use of postharvest treatments with 1 mM SNP in combination with 10 mM OA or 2% H 2 O 2 have good potential strategy to improve the storability and reduce decay incidence as well as maintain postharvest quality of 'Valencia' oranges during cold storage.

The experiment was carried out during the two successive seasons (2016 and 2017) on two new grape varieties ARRA 15 and ARRA 18 cultivated in sandy soil at Sadat city, Menoufia governorate, Egypt to study the effect of sprayed potassium silicate as preharvest with modified air packaging (MAP) on; postharvest quality, storage and marketing abilities, and control of postharvest diseases of grape fruits. Results showed that potassium silicate or modified air packaging separately or joined has leads to improvement the maintenance of all quality, storage and marketing abilities, and control of postharvest diseases of grape fruits during the total storage period (5 weeks) when compared to non-treated fruits, which showed loss of all studied properties after only 3 weeks of storage under cold storage. Out of the present study (results), it could be recommended to apply both; spraying with potassium silicate along with modified air packaging to maintenance grape quality storage and marketing abilities, and reducing of postharvest diseases.