Chemical manipulations in the fruit yield and quality of Shan-e-Punjab peach

Abstract

Shan-e-Punjab peach despite of being an old variety still is the choicest variety for the commercial cultivationin subtropical plains of northern India. The present investigation was carried out on 10 years old Shan-e-Punjabtrees grafted on Sharbati seedling rootstock of peach. The trees were sprayed twice with calcium nitrate (1.0, 1.5and 2.0 %), silver nitrate (0.005, 0.010 and 0.015 %) and zinc sulphate (0.25, 0.50 and 0.75 %). Results revealedthat the foliar sprays of nutrients significantly influenced the yield and quality of peach fruit. The foliar spraysof calcium nitrate (2.0%) significantly increased the fruit yield (65.21 kg/plant), fruit weight (71.65 g), fruit lengthand breadth (5.62 and 5.02 cm), pulp weight (67.65 g), fruit firmness (14.73 lb/inch2), TSS (12.36oB), total sugars(8.01%) and juice content (37.32%), while it decreased the titratable acidity (0.74%) and polyphenol content (341.00 unit/ml/min) in peach fruits over the other treatments. The sprays of zinc sulphate (0.50%) also provedeffective in respect of TSS improvement with lowest content of acid. The highest level of polyphenol oxidaseactivity (360.11 unit/ml/min) in pulp was registered in the fruits, harvested from untreated control peach trees.