Effect of Polyethylene on Fruit Yield and Morpho-Biochemical Features During Ripening of a Local Tomato Cultivar Grown in a Tropical Environmental Condition, India

Sunil Chandra Pradhan¹* and Ajaya Kumar Patra²

¹Department of Zoology, Utkal University, VaniVihar, Bhubaneswar, India.

²Kandarpur Degree College, Kandarpur, Cuttack, India.

Corresponding Author E-mail: e-mail:sunilch_pradhan@yahoo.com

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/2867

ABSTRACT:

The work was assessed the field performance of Polythene cover on morphology, fruit yield and post maturation changes on growing tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum). Data revealed that use of polythene gave adverse effect on average height in treated condition but favourable for matured ripen fruits (41.5%). Significant correlation observed in the post maturation (0.731, P≤0.01) and fruits ripening time (0.605, P≤0.01). The fruit yield was found to be significantly increased by 61.23%. Polythene induced ripening had shown the variation in the amount of lycopene (429.3mg/100gm), protein (1.92%), ascorbic acid (23.68 mg/ 100gm) and the sugar (5.02%). Polythene covering was significant and positively correlated with lycopene (0.788, P<0.01), lipid(0.853, P<0.01),ascorbic acid(0.515 P<0.01) but negatively correlated with protein(-0.221P<0.05).Maturity at harvest is a very important attribute to tomatoes quality that found to be regulated by the use of polythene. Analysis of variance also showed statistically significant result in the lipid (F-value=14.688801,p≤0.01) ,sugar(F value= 25.52718,p≤0.01) and ascorbic acid (F-value=9.44343,p≤0.01).

KEYWORDS: Biochemical features, Lycopersicon esculentum, Polyethylene, Post mature changes.

[ HTML Full Text]