Priya Dhital¹ , Krish Rauniyar² , Chudamani Bhattarai³

1 Himalayan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (HICAST), Purbanchal University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, 5600, Nepal
2 Faculty of Agriculture, Himalayan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (HICAST), Purbanchal University, Kirtipur, Kathmandu, 5600, Nepal
3 Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project (PMAMP), PIU Bhaktapur, 44800, Nepal
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2025, Vol. 15, No. 2   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2025.15.0006
Received: 15 Dec., 2024    Accepted: 22 Jan., 2025    Published: 30 Mar., 2025

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.

Dhital P., Rauniyar K., and Bhattarai C., 2025, Impact of exogenous gibberellic acid, salicylic acid, and calcium chloride on tomato fruit's postharvest quality and shelf life, International Journal of Horticulture, 15(2): 51-60 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2025.15.0006)

Tomatoes are vital to Nepalese agriculture, but inadequate post-harvest management, lack of cold storage facilities and inefficient transportation infrastructure lead to significant losses. This study evaluates the shelf life and quality of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit cv. ‘Shrijana’ stored at ambient condition after post-harvest, exogenous treatment with GA₃ (O.1%, 0.2%, and 0.3%), SA (0.1 mM, 0.2 mM and 0.3 mM), And CaCl₂ (0.5%, 1%, and 1.5%). A Completely Randomized Design (CRD) comprising ten treatments with three replications was executed and the statistical analysis of data was completed using GenStat and Microsoft Excel. The tested fruits were stored at room temperature of an average of (26.9±2) °C (dry) and (20.5±2) °C (wet). The data on quality parameters was collected after 15 days of storage and 25 days of storage. All the tested treatments indicated a significant delay in titratable acidity and ascorbic acid degradation, and maintenance of lower pH in tomato fruits as compared to the control. The statistical result revealed that among the treatments, at 15 days of storage, the maximum retention of titratable acidity (0.58%) and ascorbic acid (14.23 mg/100 g) was observed in T1 (0.1% GA₃). With the increasing storage period, the ripening progressed, marked by the declined values of acidity, and ascorbic acid along with increased TSS values on the 25^th day. It was concluded that postharvest treatments are significant in maintaining the chemical qualities, shelf life (28.72 days), and marketable fruit% of the tomatoes harvested at the turning and pink stage. Treatment with 0.1% GA₃ significantly influenced the chemical qualities and maximum shelf life of tomato. This study provides low-cost and efficient solutions for tomato postharvest management in developing countries.

Exogenous treatments; Postharvest quality; Tomato; Gibberellic acid; Salicylic acid; Calcium chloride; Shelf life