INFLUENCE OF PRE-HARVEST FOLIAR SPRAY OF CHEMICALS ON FRUIT QUALITY ATTRIBUTES AND STORAGE BEHAVIOR OF BER CV. APPLE KUL

The current research entitled "Influence of pre-harvest foliar spray of chemicals on fruit quality attributes and storage behaviour of Ber cv.Apple Kul" was undertaken on 2-year-old ber plant cv.Apple Kul at Farmer's field, Gayeshpur during 2018-19.Nine treatments along with three replications were used in the Randomized Block Design experiment viz T 1 (Calcium Chloride@ 0.3%), T 2 (Calcium Chloride@ 0.5%), T 3 (Calcium Nitrate@ 0.5%), T 4 (Calcium Nitrate@ 1.0%), T 5 (Boric Acid@ 0.1%), T 6 (Boric Acid@ 0.2%), T 7 (Salicylic Acid@ 50 mol l -1 ), T 8 (Salicylic Acid@ 100 mol l -1 ), T 9 (Control-Water Spray).In general, each chemical had an impact on the fruit's quality and shelf life.Fruit yield, fruit weight, length as well as breadth were higher in calcium chloride at 0.5% followed by calcium nitrate 1.0% than control.Maximum TSS (12.7Brix), total sugar (9.09%), reducing sugar (5.52%) and nonreducing sugar (3.29%) were observed with calcium nitrate@ 1.0% but significantly higher ascorbic acid (56.73 mg/100g) was noted with boric acid 0.2%.Calcium chloride@ 0.5% showed promising results in terms of minimum physiological loss in weight (%), lessening spoilage and higher percentage of marketable fruits; calcium nitrate@ 1.0% during storage improved the overall quality of fruits and extending the shelf life.Thus, keeping in view the significant impact of chemicals on quality and shelf life of ber, the use of Ca(NO 3 ) 2 @ 1.0 % and CaCl 2 @ 0.5 % proved most effective.