Increasing Storability of Mango cv. ‘Zibda’ Fruits By 1-Methylcyclopropene and Gibberellic Acid Postharvest Applications

The effects of postharvest applications of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) and gibberellic acid (GA3) on fruit quality of stored mango cv. ‘Zibda’ at 13°C were studied during two successive seasons, 2014 and 2015. Fruits divided into three equal groups and treated with 0, 1 and 1.5 ppm of 1-MCP. Applications were performed by placing each group into a hermetic chamber and exposing them to the gas for 24 hours at room temperature. After the duration of 1-MCP applications, the fruits in each group divided into three equal subgroups and mangoes were dipped into aqueous solutions of GA3 at 0, 50 and 100 ppm concentration for ten minutes. All treatments were stored at 13°C for five weeks. All postharvest applications significantly increased fruit storability and reduced the deterioration rate of mango fruits during storage. Moreover, the combination treatments of 1-MCP with GA3 were more effective in this aspect. This experiment revealed that, postharvest application of ‘Zibda’ mango fruits with exposed to 1-MCP for 24 hours or dipped in GA3 solution for ten minutes especially combined treatments before storage at 13°C alleviated decay incidence reduced weight loss percentage and increased marketable fruit percentage. In addition, these applications delayed the variability of fruit colour, decreased loss of fruit firmness and maintained inner fruit quality for up to five weeks at 13°C followed by three days shelf life at room temperature.