Pre-harvest treatment effect of humic acid on shelf life improvement of “Paros” strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 M. Sc. Student, Department of Horticultural Sciences, College of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Horticultural Sciences, College of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran.

10.30466/rip.2023.121283

Abstract

In order to evaluate the effect of treatment of different concentrations of humic acid on quality maintenance postharvest of strawberry fruit, Paros cultivar was researched in a greenhouse in Jiroft in a completely randomized design. For this purpose, strawberry plants were sprayed with treatments of humic acid with concentrations of 0, 12.5, 25 and 50 mg/l in four replications at the beginning of flowering stage to evaluate the post-harvest quality of fruits at temperature 1 °C and 90-95% relative humidity were stored for 20 days and traits including firmness, total soluble solids, acidity, decay, weight loss, titratable acid, fruits were measured.
The results showed that the treatment of humic acid 50 mg/l had the highest effect on maintaining the strength of the fruit (firmness), total soluble solids and titratable acid. Fruits treated with humic acid 50 mg/l showed the lowest percentage of weight loss, decay and acidity during storage. Other treatments were significantly different with the control, but the best treatment to increase the shelf life of strawberry fruit was humic acid 40 mg/l.

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