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Pak. J. Bot., 45(2): 563-570, 2013. |
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Updated: 21-03-13 | ||||
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INFLUENCE OF DEFOLIATION AND DEBLOSSOMING ON FRUIT QUALITY OF GUAVA (PSIDIUM GUAJAVA L.) CV. GOLA
AHMAD SATTAR KHAN1*, MUHAMMAD REHMAN GUL KHAN1, AMAN ULLAH MALIK1, ISHTIAQ AHMAD RAJWANA2, TAYYABA SHAHEEN3 AND ALLAH BAKHSH4
Abstract:
To investigate the
influence of defoliation and deblossoming on fruit quality of guava (Psidium
guajava L.), trees of cv. ‘Gola’ were subjected to various levels of
defoliation and deblossoming manually [T1 = control (no defoliation and
deblossoming), T2 = 100% defoliation + 100% deblossoming, T3 = 50%
defoliation + 50% deblossoming, T4 = 0% defoliation + 50% deblossoming,
and T5 = 0% defoliation + 100% deblossoming] by using pruning scissor in
the last week of April. The physical and biochemical fruit
characteristics were recorded at harvest. Defoliation and deblossoming
significantly affected the fruit size and maximum fruit size (34.4 cm-2)
was exhibited by fruit harvested from trees subjected to T4 in summer.
However, other physical fruit quality characteristics did not differ
significantly with various levels of defoliation and deblossoming. Fruit
harvested from trees subjected to T4 exhibited maximum score for
organoleptic characteristics. The level of total soluble solids (12.2%)
in the guava juice in summer crop and reducing sugars (2.6%) in winter
crops exhibited significantly higher values than other treatments. It
can be concluded that trees subjected to different defoliation and
deblossoming levels had a significant influence on fruit quality of
guava cv. ‘Gola’. Application of 50% deblossoming without defoliation
produced fruit with better fruit size, organoleptic chatacetistics,
souble solids, ascorbic acid and reducing sugars both during summer as
well as winter crop. 1Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan 2Department of Horticulture, University College of Agriculture, Bahauddin Zakariya,University, Multan, Pakistan 3Department of Bioinformatics and Biotechnology G.C. University, Faisalabad, Pakistan 4Horticultural Research Station Nowshera, Khushab, Punjab, Pakistan *Corresponding author: ahmad_khan157@yahoo.com |
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