Efecto de la aplicación de bioestimulantes sobre la calidad y capacidad antioxidante de frutos de calabacita (Cucurbita pepo L. var. ‘Grey Zucchini’)

Abstract

Nowadays, agricultural research has not been only focused on studying the effect of different treatments on plant development and yield, but it has also been involved on study their effect on the postharvest quality of products. This study was conducted to determine the treatment effect based on plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (Azotobacter chroococcum), alone or combined with different oligosaccharins of pectic origin (Pectimorf®) or derivatives of chitosan (Quitomax®), on the postharvest quality of zucchini fruits (Cucurbita pepo L.) var. 'Grey Zucchini'. Physical characteristics (polar and equatorial diameter, weight, dry biomass, f irmness, and color) and chemical characteristics (pH, total soluble solids, treatable acidity and vitamin C), proteins, antioxidant enzymatic activities (superoxide dismutase, catalase and total peroxidase), polyphenol oxidase activity, and antioxidant content (phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity) were evaluated. Results showed significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) between control and treatments in most of the parameters evaluated, such as: color, length (up to 15.88%), width (up to 16.25%), weight (up to 57.31%), dry biomass (up to 34.43%), pH (down to 9.72%), vitamin C (up to 162.6%) and protein content (up to 22.38%), and total antioxidant capacity (down to 18.72%). Therefore, plant treatments improved the quality and composition of postharvest fruits, which accentuates the importance of organic treatments during the development of plants to obtain fruits with better organoleptic characteristics.

Worm castings and naphthaleneacetic acid in the growth and yield of zucchini in shade houses

“…The exogenous application of plant growth regulators depends on several factors such as the plant genotype, growing season, type of regulator, and applied concentration (Tantasawat et al, 2015). Some have been widely used on vegetables, to improve fruit setting and increase production, such as indoleacetic acid (Montaño-Mata and Méndez-Natera, 2009), gibberellic acid (Pichardo-González et al, 2018), naphthaleneacetic acid (Soriano-Melgar et al, 2020;Sedighehsadat et al, 2021), -naphthoxyacetic acid (Martínez et al, 2016) and forchlorfenuron (CPPU) (Rueda-Luna et al, 2018). In this sense, naphthaleneacetic acid has been widely used in melons (Barzegar et al, 2015;Menchaca-Ceja et al, 2018), however, its effect on zucchini is scarcely known.…”