EFFECT OF POTASSIUM SILICATE AND CHELATED CALCIUM SPRAYS ON YIELD, QUALITY AND STORAGE OF PEACH FRUITS CV. “DESSERT RED”

Abstract

The present work was conducted on ten years old Dessert Red peach (Prunus persica L.) trees grown in a private orchard at El-Riad, Kafr El-Sheikh governorate, Egypt. This study carried out during 2019 and 2020 seasons to evaluate the effect of pre-harvest foliar applications of potassium silicate at 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3%, calcium EDTA at 0.1 and 0.2% in addition to control treatment on yield, fruit quality and storability of peach fruits at 0±1°C with 90-95% RH. Results showed that all preharvest foliar application treatments led to increase yield (fruits weight as kg/tree and ton/feddan) and improved fruit quality compared with control treatment. Foliar spraying with T7 (K2SiO3 at 0.3% + Calcium EDTA at 0.2%) and T6 (K2SiO3 at 0.2% + Calcium EDTA at 0.2%) showed the highest yield and more effective in improving fruit quality in terms of fruit weight, length, diameter, volume, firmness, SSC% and vitamin C content at harvest time as compared to control in both seasons. Moreover, these applications showed the highest values of vitamin C content, juice acidity % and the lowest values of weight loss % up to 28 days of cold storage in both seasons. While, application of K2SiO3 at 0.3% + Calcium EDTA at 0.2% recorded the highest fruit firmness values and the lowest fruit decay %, and maintained fruit SSC% and anthocyanin content during all storage periods in both seasons. Therefore, it can be recommend to spray this treatment (K2SiO3 at 0.3% + Calcium EDTA at 0.2%) three times to increase yield, improve quality, and maintain peach fruit quality during cold storage.