Effect of Calcium and Coating Materials on Quality and Shelf Life of Guava (Psidium guajava L.) Cv. Allahabad Safeda under Cold Storage Condition

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of calcium and coating materials on quality and shelf life of guava (Psidium guajava L.) cv. Allahabad Safeda under cold storage condition during Rabi-2020 at Horticultural Research Farm and P.G. Laboratory, Department of Horticulture, B. A. College of Agriculture, Anand Agricultural University, Anand, Gujarat. Freshly harvested uniform sized fruits at proper physiological maturity were subjected to treatments comprising of different calcium chemical concentration viz., CaCl2 1%, CaNO3 2% and No chemical and with different coating materials (Coconut oil, Arabic gum, Olive oil and No coating). Total numbers of treatments are twelve with CRD factorial design. Periodic observations on 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th and 20th day of storage periods were taken. The study results revealed that fruits treated with CaCl2 1.0% when coated with coconut oil coating resulted in prolonging shelf life up to 20 days with minimizing physiological loss in weight (1.88%), spoilage (6.63%), TSS (11.85) and firmness (7.35%) with maintaining higher level of acidity (0.733), ascorbic acid (237.5), total sugar (4.48), reducing sugar and non-reducing sugar as compared to the control (No chemical and No coating). In this investigation, application of CaCl2 1% with coconut oil coating is increase shelf life up to 20 days of guava under cold storage with maintained physiological and bio-chemical characters.