Effect of Pre-Harvest Fruit Bagging on Fruit Quality Characteristics of Different Guava Cultivars during Rainy Season

The present investigation was carried out on 6-7 years old grafted guava plants at Guava Demonstration Centre, Bhuna, Haryana, India during the rainy season (2019-20). During the experiment, the fruits of different guava cultivars viz. Hisar Safeda, Hisar Surkha, Allahabad Safeda, and Shweta were bagged with different bagging materials immediately after the fruit set. Results showed that the fruits bagged with blue polythene exhibited maximum fruit volume (113.96 ml) and organoleptic score (8.8), while the minimum (95.30 ml and 6.3, respectively) values were observed in the control. The highest fruit firmness (6.62 Kg/cm2) was observed with green polythene, while the minimum (5.03 Kg/cm2) was in control. Additionally, bagged fruits showed better peel colour development. The fruit drop was also reduced in all treatments except for the control (20%), yellow paper (12.78%), and green paper (11.66%). Fruit drop was minimum in transparent polythene (5.55%) and green polythene. On the other hand, Decay loss was eliminated in yellow paper, green paper, blue paper, cotton cloth, and muslin cloth bags, and significantly reduced in all the treatments except the control (8.88%). Among the cultivars, the maximum fruit firmness (5.98 Kg/cm2) was recorded in Hisar Safeda, whereas the least firmness (5.64 Kg/cm2) was in Allahabad Safeda. In conclusion, pre-harvest bagging of fruits was found promising in enhancing the quality attributes of various guava cultivars which can also be applied in real farm situations to enhance the yield as well as the quality of guava crop.