A. Subedi , A.K., Shrestha , K.M. Tripathi , B. Shrestha

Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2019, Vol. 9, No. 2   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2019.09.0002
Received: 10 Jan., 2019    Accepted: 23 May, 2019    Published: 10 Jun., 2019

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Subedi A., Shrestha A.K., Tripathi K.M., and Shrestha B., 2019, Effect of foliar spray of boron and zinc on the fruit quality of papaya (Carica papaya L.) cv. Red Lady in Chitwan, Nepal, International Journal of Horticulture, 9(2): 10-14 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2019.09.0002)

A field experiment was carried out at the commercial papaya farm, Chanauli, Chitwan, from January 2016 to December 2016 to find out the effect of foliar spray of boron and zinc on the quality of papaya (Carica papaya L.) cv. Red Lady. The experiment consisted of eleven treatments viz., "T1-Control (No spray), T2-Water Spray, T3-Borax at 0.1 % and ZnSO₄ at 0.1 %, T4-Borax at 0.1 % and ZnSO₄ at 0.2 %, T5-Borax at 0.1 % and ZnSO₄ at 0.3 %, T6-Borax at 0.2 % and ZnSO₄ at 0.1 %, T7-Borax at 0.2 % and ZnSO₄ at 0.2 %, T8-Borax at 0.2 % and ZnSO₄ at 0.3 %, T9-Borax at 0.3 % and ZnSO₄ at 0.1 %, T10-Borax at 0.3 % and ZnSO₄ at 0.2 % and T11-Borax at 0.3 % and ZnSO₄ at 0.3 %." Post-harvest analysis of the harvested fruits was done at the post-harvest laboratory of Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan. Significantly the highest values were observed for the quality parameters like ascorbic acid content (4.67 mg/100 g pulp), TSS (11.68 °Brix), P^H of fruit juice (5.53), TSS/TA ratio (101.63), and fruit firmness (2.73 Kg/cm²) with the application of borax at 0.3 % and ZnSO₄ at 0.2 %. Similarly, the lowest values for titratable acidity (0.115 %) and physiological loss in weight during 3 days (1.60 %), 5 days (2.00 %), 7 days (3.05 %), and 9 days (4.75 %) after storage at room temperature were found in the same treatment.

Boron; Zinc; Papaya; Quality; Foliar Spray; Red Lady