Response of Pineapple Yield and Quality on Pinching of Crown Leaves Combined with Bagging of Fruits

Abstract

The experiment was carried out during 2014-2016 at Horticulture farm under the Department of Horticulture and Post Harvest Technology, Institute of Agriculture, Visva Bharati, Sriniketan to study the ‘Response of pineapple yield and quality on pinching of crown leaves combined with bagging of fruits’. The experiment comprised of 9 treatment combinations of pinching of leaves with different types of bagging materials that is T1:control, T2: pinching of 3 crown leaves; T3: pinching of 6 crown leaves; T4: pinching of 3 crown leaves + bagging with thin jute bag; T5: pinching of 3 crown leaves + bagging with perforated black polythene; T6: pinching of 3 crown leaves + bagging with news paper; T7: pinching of 6 crown leaves + bagging with thin jute bag; T8: pinching of 6 crown leaves + bagging with perforated black polythene; T9: pinching of 6 crown leaves + bagging with news paper . Entire experiment was done by using RBD with three replications. Observations was recorded on yield and quality attributes namely, fruit length without crown (cm), crown length (cm), fruit weight without crown (g), crown weight (g), estimated yield without crown (t/ha), fruit juice content (g), TSS (oB), acidity (%), TSS: acidity ratio, reducing sugar (%) and total sugar (%). Results denoted that the fruit size, fruit weight, and estimated yield was found best with the treatment T9 (6 crown leaves pinching with newspaper bagging) and all the fruit quality parameter like TSS, acidity, ascorbic acid, reducing and non reducing sugar, and orgenoleptic score was also found superior in T9 (6 crown leaves pinching with newspaper bagging. These result is may be due to the fact that bagging keeps the temperature lower than external environment and helps to arouse proper development and growth and pinching of leaves consequently increases the weight of fruit and also make it convenient for handling and markinteng.