Title: Appropriate Solution for Poor Shelf Life Problem in Rainy Season Guava (Psidium guajava) var. L-49
Abstract: Shelf life of rainy season or Ambe bahar guava is very poor due to uncongenial atmospheric condition during fruiting period. Warm and humid conditions cause the fruits to be infected by insects and disease causing organisms along with loss in weight. A detail study of physiological weight loss during storage of guava fruits was carried out after various pre harvest treatments at Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh during 2015-16. The guava fruits were treated with nine pre harvest treatments including spraying of CaCl2 2%, CaSO4 2%, Bagging with polythene and brown paper, CaCl2 2% + polythene bag, CaCl2 2% + brown paper bag, CaSO4 2% + polythene bag, CaSO4 2% +brown paper bag and Control. The interaction effects of pre harvest treatments and duration of storage on physiological weight loss of fruits were studied. Physiological weight loss value of all treatments was found significantly higher than control. The minimum PLW of 0.69% with the maximum shelf life period of 9 days was recorded in combined treatment of calcium chloride and polythene bag.