B. Chalise¹ , R.K. Giri² , S. Kalauni¹ , L. Bhandari¹

1 Directorate of Agricultural Research, Lumbini Province, Janaki-04, Khajura, Banke, Nepal
2 Horticultural Research Station, Karnali Province, Chandannath-01, Rajikot, Jumla, Nepal
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2023, Vol. 13, No. 13   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2023.13.0013
Received: 07 Oct., 2023    Accepted: 13 Nov., 2023    Published: 30 Nov., 2023

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.

Chalise B., Giri R.K., Kalauni S., and Bhandari L., 2023, Determining optimum harvesting date of ‘Red Delicious’ apple at Jumla, Karnali Province of Nepal, International Journal of Horticulture, 13(13): 1-7 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2023.13.0013)

Study was conducted during two consecutive years 2015 and 2016 at the fruit laboratory of Horticultural Research Station, Rajikot, Jumla to determine the optimum harvesting date of ‘Red Delicious’ apple grafted on crab apple (Malus baccata Borkh.). Fruit samples were collected from 40 years old trees planted in Gairagaun farm at 2,406 meter above mean sea level altitude. Samples were taken on weekly interval from four trees as a replication and a total of eight fruits per tree per picking were collected from the branches located at east, west, north and south directions (two fruits per branch). Fruits sample were harvested at weekly intervals started from 19th August and continued till 23rd September. Fruit weight, fruit diameter, fruit length, fruit shape index, total soluble solid (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), TSS/TA ratio, starch index (SI) was recorded in every sampling date. The study results revealed that fruit of ‘Red Delicious’ apple can be harvested from 2nd September and onwards since at that date TSS, TA, TSS/TA and SI were 12.00%, 0.30%, 40.10% and 4.00% respectively. Therefore, this study recommends the apple growers of Jumla and similar climatic tract to harvest ‘Red Delicious’ apple from 2nd September and onwards.

Total soluble solid; Titratable acidity; Starch index; Ripening ratio