No abstract

Thirty-five pummelo (Citrus grandis (L.) Osbeck) genotypes were assessed with respect to their quality parameters considered most essential with respect to horticultural aspects. Among the genotypes, significant to highly significant differences were observed in all the parameters. Different fruit physical parameters such as weight, diameter, length, volume pulp weight, pulp thickness, pulp-peel ratio and seed number varied significantly among the genotypes. Similarly, there were high level of differences among the genotypes with respect to chemical parameters of the fruits. The juice content varied from 13.64% to 43.56%, vitamin C from 17.40 to 52.70 mg/100 ml, total soluble solids from 7.73% to 11.67%, acidity from 0.76% to 1.86%, total sugars from 7.47% to 9.95% and sugar-acid ratio from 4.88 to 12.58. The present study reveals that parameters such as weight of the fruit, length of the fruit, diameter, volume, pulp weight, pulp-peel ratio, juice, TSS, acidity, ascorbic acid, total sugars and sugar-acid ratio can be considered as selection criteria for future breeding programmes in pummelo. The high level of differences with respect to various physical and chemical parameters of the fruits shows the great scope for superior genotype selection based on these particular parameters for genetic improvement programmes in near future.

The present investigation was carried out during 2015-16 at department of Horticulture, Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, Mizoram University, Aizawl to find out suitable edible coating on prolonging shelf-life of strawberry fruits.The different treatments were: T1: coconut oil 100%, T2 : castor oil 100%, T3 : olive oil 100%, T4 : Liquid paraffin wax 100%, T5 : Aloe vera gel, T6 :chitosan (1% w/v), T7 : chitosan (2%w/v), T8 : kaolene (1%w/v), T9 : kaolene (2%w/v), T10 : carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC) (1% w/v), and T11 : control (Water spray). The results revealed that among the different edible coatings studied, coating with coconut oil resulted lowest PLW (17.57%), maximum marketable fruits retained (56.67%), total sugars ( 8.82%), ascorbic acid (65.74 mg/100 ml juice), total anthocyanin content (33.38%) of fruits. The various quality parameters in terms of flavour, taste, appearance and overall acceptability were also found superior in this particular treatment.

An investigation was carried out at experimental field, Department of Horticulture, Aromatic and Medicinal Plants, Mizoram University to study the effect of planting density on growth, yield and quality of strawberry(Fragaria ×ananassaa Duch.) cv. Camarosa. The experiment comprises of a number of planting densities, viz. T1: 50 × 40 cm,T2 : 40 × 40 cm, T3 : 40 × 30 cm, T4 : 30 × 30 cm, T5: 30 × 25 cm, T6 : 25 × 25 cm, T7 : 25 × 20 cm and T8 : 20 × 20 cm and T8 : 20 × 20 cm. Among the different planting density, the maximum growth in terms of plant height (26.85 cm), E-W (37.83 cm) and N-S spread (39.58 cm), number of leaves (34.45), leaf area (213.92 cm2) and crowns/plant (8.11) were observed in the widest spacing, i.e. 50 × 40 cm. This treatment also exhibit superiority in yield attributing characters like berry set percentage (81.17), berry weight (21.73 g), berry diameter (36.06 mm), berry length (43.73 mm), number of berries/plant (21.05) and total biomass (964.64 g). The quality parameters of the fruit like TSS (8.94 °Brix), titratable acidity (0.812%), TSS: acid ratio (11.03), total sugars (8.50%), reducing (4.78%) ascorbic acid (67.67/mg/100g) and anthocyanin content (38.53 mg/100g) were also found superior in this spacing. The overall assessment of the present study concluded that a spacing 50 × 40cm is the most efficient planting denstity for improving growth, yield and quality in Camarosa strawberry under Mizoram conditions.