Comparison of plant growth, yield, fruit quality and biotic stress incidence in papaya var. Pusa Nanha under polyhouse and open field conditions

Abstract

Papaya is one of the most important fruit crop in the tropical and sub-tropical region of India. However, the production of this economically important fruit crop is limited by the various biotic and abiotic stresses like papaya ring spot & leaf curl virus and low temperature during winter season. The affected plant shows stunted growth, small fruits with ring spot blemishes and drastically reduced fruit yield and TSS content of fruits. Hence, to reduce the risk of the crop loss an evaluation was carried out to compare of plant growth, yield and fruit quality of papaya var. Pusa Nanha under polyhouse and open field conditions at New Delhi. The seedlings of papaya were grown in insect proof net house and transplanted (50 days after sowing) in two growing conditions, viz., open field and polyhouse. The evaluation of papaya under polyhouse showed early flower initiation (64.67 days), higher number of leaf at flowering (18.33), petiole length (84.32), long fruiting zone (171.46), fruit set (46.23%), high fruit yield (34.56 kg/plant) compared to open field. The physical and chemical composition of papaya fruits, i.e. fruit firmness ((1.97 kg.cm−2), total soluble solids (11.3°Brix), ascorbic acid (75.26 mg/100 g pulp) were significantly improved under polyhouse over open field production. Papaya grown in polyhouse was almost free from the papaya ring spot virus, papaya leaf curl virus and less infected by collar rot, stem rot.