The use of brown algae extract to extend shelf life and improve post harvest quality of tomato fruit

Abstract

The economical value of horticultural product depends on the products freshness and its long lasting storage ability. These long lasting storage ability is depend on how we keep the fruits with their appropriate surrounding and also how we supplied the plants with exact dose of nutrient. It has been reported that brown macroalgae contains a lot of bioactive compounds including growth hormone and several kind of macro and micro nutrient which is potential to use as biofertilizer for tomato plant growth together with urea. Combination of these two fertilizers is expected to produce better quality and quantity of fruit. This article reported fruits in combination with longer shelf life quality and shelf age of tomato storage in soil applied with urea and brown macroalgae extract. Tomato plant were grown in soil media contained different dose of urea 0 gr for control (P0), 0.25 gr (P1) and 5 gr (P2). Each plant were also sprayed with 10% of Sargassum crassifolium (E1), Sargassum cristaefolium (E2), Sargassum aquifolium (E3) and Turbinaria murayana (E4). The result demonstrated that the tomato fruits produced by plants supplied with combination between urea and seaweed extract has better quantity of fruits (14-15fruit/plant) compared to control (9 fruits/plant). Fruit produce by plant supplied with 5 gr urea and S. cristaefolium extract has diameter of 2.7 cm which is bigger compared to the control and other treatment. Meanwhile, best fruit texture were 0.125 mm/g/5g (P1E3 and P2E2) in one month storage. Thus demonstrated that combination of brown macroalgae extract and urea provide exact nutrient for tomato plants and keep its fruits quality during long lasting storage.