Bunch bagging with triple protection reduce chilling injury of banana fruit ‘Nanica’ (Cavendish AAA sub-group) / Ensacamento do cacho com proteção tripla reduz a injúria pelo frio em frutos de banana ‘Nanica’ (Cavendish subgrupo AAA)

Abstract

The bagging of banana bunch can control chilling injury (CI) in the field, which causes browning of fruit peel. The investigation aimed to evaluate the reduce chilling injury in 'Nanica' banana bunches with the use de triple protection. The experiment was conducted in Jacupiranga, SP, Brazil, in a design was completely randomized with two treatments, bunch without protection (no protection) and triple protection, with thirteen replications. Triple protection consisted of brown paper with polythene coating (layer closest to the fruit), blue transparent polyethylene (median layer) and black opaque polyethylene (outermost layer).The bagging was made before of opening of the bracts of inflorescence. In the coldest day, when the temperature inside the canopy reached 4.23oC, the triple protection raised the temperature the surface of the peel by 3.06oC in relation to no protection fruits. On the hottest day, triple protection did not increase the temperature of the skin of the fruit excessively. There were no losses from sunburn fruits. Bunches with triple protection and no protection did not differ in terms of mass that had an average value of 30.87 Kg planta-1. No protection bunches were harvested an average of ten days. There were differences between unprotected fruits and triple protection in terms of chilling injury index (CI index), brightness (L*) and hue angle (ho) of peel. Triple protection reduced CI index and promoted fruits with bright green peel at harvest and bright yellow at ripening. The materials used in triple protection can be recycled or reused.