Effect of bunch bagging on fruit quality of banana cv. SABRI

Abstract

Banana (Musa sapientum) is an important tropical fruit crop in India. External appearance of is important factor which decides the market value of the product. Many banana growers suffer huge monetary loss due to pre harvest eating of insects especially scaring beetle, mechanical injury, damage of foxes etc. In Khowai district of Tripura, the infestation of insect was found to be very high. To address the problem an experiment was conducted in the instructional farm of KVK, Khowai, Tripura, India during the year 2016-17 and 2017-18. Ten numbers of bunches were random selected from an already existing banana cv. SABRI orchard. The experiment was comprises of two treatment- T1 : bunches are covering with 6 per cent ventilated Polythene covers / sleeves of size 200 cm length x 150 cm width x 175 gauge thickness and T2 : not covered or control. It was observed that the banana fruits matured under covered condition were more visually appealing as they were clean and had minimal bruises, especially more large-grade fruit with uniform fullness of fruit within the bunch compared to those grown uncovered. 11.45 per cent more finger length and 7.35 per cent more individual fruit weight was noticed in cover bunches compared to that uncovered. Bunch covering also had a positive on the TSS content of the fruit. Further, bagging helps in shorten the time from flowering to physiological maturity by 10. Thus bunch covering can be recommended for commercial banana orchards in Tripura to produce high quality fruits.