Effect of pre-harvest chemical treatments and mulching on quality of mango, Mangifera indica L cv Amrapali fruits

Ten year old mango cv Amrapali plants with uniform vigor and size were given seven treatments comprising black LDPE mulching 100 micron thickness (during September) and pre-harvest chemical spray of CaCl2 (2.0, 4.0 and 6.0%), Ca (No3)2 (4.0%), borax (1.0%) in combination with mulching and control (water spray without mulching) at 30 days before the anticipated date of harvest. The spraying of 2.0 per cent CaCl2 along with black LDPE mulching was found to minimize the physiological loss of weight (15.13%) on 12th day of storage whereas the treatment of borax (1.0%) + mulching was found to increase the TSS (18.81oBrix, 22.10oBrix), reducing sugar (3.27%, 5.14%), total sugar (12.12%, 19.03%) and decrease the acidity (0.34%, 0.19%) at the time of harvest and end of the storage period respectively. Therefore the use of black LDPE mulch material in September along with borax (1.0%) spray  30 days prior to harvest was found to improve fruit quality and CaCl2 (2.0%) was found to reduce physiological loss in weight in Amrapali mango.