Effect of Harvesting Methods on Storage Behaviour of Mandarin (<i>Citrus Reticulata</i> Blanco) Under Cellar Condition

Abstract

Mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco) is a premier fruit crop expanding rapidly in the hilly areas of Nepal. Most of the mandarin growers in Nepal are using conventional harvesting method which is responsible for deteriorating the fruit quality and shortening the postharvest shelf life. Thus, this experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different harvesting methods on quality and shelf-life of mandarin during storage under the Cellar condition (11±2°C and 85-90% RH). For this, mandarin fruits harvested by different methods i.e. hitting by sticks, direct pulling, twisting and pulling, and clipping were stored for 90 days and fortnight interval reading of different quality parameters were carried out. The experimental results revealed that fruits harvested by clipper with small pedicel intact recorded the minimum PLW (3.15%), decay loss (8.33%), and TSS (10.57° Brix) and retained the higher fruit firmness (3.30 kg/cm 2 ), maximum juice recovery percentage (49.69), TA (0.85%) and vitamin C (25.50 mg/100 ml) during the storage under Cellar condition. The study concluded that fruits harvesting with clipper can be stored safely up to three months under the Cellar condition.

Evaluation of Manual Fruit Harvesters and Storability Characteristics of Harvested Sweet Orange Under Ordinary Room Storage Condition

“…Previous studies on the effect of harvesting methods on the storage behavior of fruits support our findings. For instance, a recent study by Rokaya et al (2020) evaluated mandarin storability under cellar condition and reported less water loss in clipped fruits (3.15%) than that of fruit harvested by sticks (15.81%) (Rokaya et al, 2020). As well a study, reported a weight loss of 18-21% in fruit stored at room temperature for 12 days (Purbiati and Supriyanto, 2013).…”

“…In contrast, lower rot incidence in SE and CH treatments is attributed to intact fruit with controlled sap oozing and lateral infection due to the presence of pedicel in fruit (Singh et al, 1993;Sonkar et al, 1999;Kumargoud et al, 2017). Moreover, fruits with intact stalk were less prone to fungal infection during storage than those without fruit stalk (Rokaya et al, 2020;Purbiati and Supriyanto, 2013;Waskar et al, 1997). Likewise, twisting, turning action by the three soft rubber padded claws of LRF prevents peeling and damage of outer skin around peduncle extremity point.…”

“…A previous study in mango reported fruits with stalk had 2-4 days more shelf-life with minimum decay loss and higher marketability (Singh et al, 1993;Waskar et al, 1997). Controlled storage condition (85-90% RH and 3-9 0 C) are being practiced for reducing the rate of water loss, shriveling, wilting and textural changes, and further enhance the shelf-life of harvested fruit (Rokaya et al, 2020). These study findings are based on ordinary room storage condition thus further study on fruit quality of the harvested fruits on the controlled storage condition is recommended.…”

“…Harvesting is considered as one of the crucial and critical tasks in fruit production due to possible damage to the fruits and musculo skeletal stress on the worker (Rokaya et al, 2020;Sabale et al, 2017;Li et al, 2011). At present, fruits harvesting work by farmers is performed by conventional methods such as hand-picking, tree shaking, hitting by sticks and by climbing on a tree or ladder.…”

“…Importantly, those methods also deteriorate the quality and shelf-life of the fruit that will reduce earning of farmers. For instance, a study showed that a pulling method can rupture the peel off loose skin resulting in spoilage and harvesting by using clippers found effective to enhance the shelf-life (Rokaya et al, 2020).…”