Effects of Plastic Film Mulching on Quality and Appearance of Statuma Mandarin Fruit

Shenxi Xie,Guifu Zhang

doi:10.4236/ajps.2014.526401

Abstract

Six-year Statuma mandarin (Citrus unshiu Marc. Cv. Miyagawa Wase) trees were used as materials to investigate the effects of plastic film mulching on quality and appearance of Statuma mandarin fruit during three periods of cell division, cell enlargement and mature stages. The results showed that mulching during the cell division and early-mature stages increased total sugar and reduced sugar content of fruit as well as the Vc content, compared to the control. However, the titratable acid content, fruit size, peel weight and single fruit weight were all lower than the control. Film mulching during the cell division phage resulted in higher edible fruit rate, while the fruit shape index was similar to the control. Mulching during the early-mature stage didn’t affect the edible rate of fruit, but caused lower fruit shape index. Compared to the control, film mulching during the cell enlargement period caused lower total and reducing sugar content, titratable acid content and edible rate, while the Vc content was a little bit higher than the control. In addition, the fruit size, peel weight, single fruit weight and fruit shape index were all lower than the control. Mulching during the early-mature period effectively enhanced the content of total and reduced sugar and Vc and decreased the titratable acid content. Hence, it increased fruit quality but had negative effect on fruit appearance.

Highlights

China is one of the main countries for citrus production and has No 1 harvest area and No 2 citrus production in the world [1]
There are a lot of studies focusing on the effect of plastic film mulching on fruit quality, soil environment and light under the canopy [5]-[8], but studies on the effect of mulching on fruit appearance and quality during citrus fruit development are much less
The Effect of Film Mulching on Total and Reducing Sugar Contents of Fruit The results indicated that the accumulation trends of total sugar were similar between the treated and control trees during citrus fruit development (Figure 2)

Summary

Introduction

China is one of the main countries for citrus production and has No 1 harvest area and No 2 citrus production in the world [1]. (2014) Effects of Plastic Film Mulching on Quality and Appearance of Statuma Mandarin Fruit. These regions are the main citrus production area in China. Plastic film mulching affects soil in different ways. It can increase soil temperature, have effect on water conservation and avoidance, enhance soil fertility and improve soil physical properties, so it has important impact on crop growth, development, yield and quality [3]. There are a lot of studies focusing on the effect of plastic film mulching on fruit quality, soil environment and light under the canopy [5]-[8], but studies on the effect of mulching on fruit appearance and quality during citrus fruit development are much less. We used Statuma mandarin trees to investigate how film mulching during various stages affects appearance and quality of citrus fruit

Materials

Methods

The Effect of Film Mulching on Soil Temperature and Water Potential

The Effect of Film Mulching on Fruit Quality

A B C Control

Conclusion