Preharvest bagging improves maturity and postharvest quality of cherry tomato

Fruit preharvest bagging is an environmentally friendly phytosanitary and physical protection method against insect pest and disease infestation, bird attacks, physiological disorders, wind and hail damage, sunburn and mechanical damage such as abrasion and cracking.
This technique enhances physical quality of fruit by promoting peel colouration and reducing blemishes.
It also modifies the microenvironment of the fruit during development; thus, enhance the chemical quality of the produce.
Despite these positive attributes, its influence on maturity as well as postharvest quality of fruit is not well documented.
The current study was conducted to investigate the influence of the transparent and blue bagging plastic bags on physical and chemical quality of ‘Tinker’ cherry tomato during 10 days of shelf life at ambient conditions.
Bagging was done before harvest on fruit clusters with a diameter of 1.5 cm for 10 days whereas unbagged fruit we used as control.
Preharvest bagging significantly accelerated ripening and improved postharvest quality of cherry tomato compared to control.
Bagged fruit had uniform colouration, high soluble solid content (SSC), lycopene, low titratable acidy (TA) and a more progressive loss of firmness and weight due to ripening compared to control which had uneven colour development, low SSC, lycopene, firmness and weight loss and high TA as a result of delayed ripening.
These results demonstrated that bagging cherry tomato using the transparent and blue plastic bags effectively enhanced maturity and postharvest quality.

XXXI International Horticultural Congress (IHC2022): International Symposium on Integrative Approaches to Product Quality in Fruits and Vegetables

N.M.D. Buthelezi, N. Mathaba, T.P. Mafeo, M.P. Mafotja

bagging materials, fruit quality, ripening, shelf life

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2022.1353.43