Bagging Organic Peaches Reduces Physical Injuries and Storage Decay with Minimal Effects on Fruit Quality

Abstract

Fruit bagging is an acceptable cultural practice for organic production that provides a physical barrier to protect fruit. It can reduce pest and pathogen injury for a variety of fruit crops, but quality attributes have been inconsistent for peach [Prunus persica (L.) Batsch] and other bagged fruit. A 2-year experiment on a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) organic-certified peach orchard in central Florida was conducted to analyze the effects of a commercially available paper bag designed for fruit protection and cardinal quadrant (north, south, east, and west sides) of the tree canopy on low-chill peach ‘TropicBeauty’ fruit quality. Protective bags appeared to delay fruit maturity. Flesh firmness and chlorophyll concentration of bagged fruit were 31% and 27% greater than unbagged fruit, respectively. Bagged fruit were protected as demonstrated with a reduction in mechanical injury by 95%, fruit fly injury by 450%, and scab-like lesions by 810%. Bagging reduced fruit brown rot (Monilinia fructicola) at harvest and 7 days after harvest; unbagged fruit were 2 and 3.5 times more likely to have rot at harvest and 7 days after harvest, respectively. Fruit bags did not affect yield, fruit size, total soluble solids, titratable acidity, pH, peel lightness, peel hue angle, or flesh color. Overall, canopy cardinal quadrant location had minimal effect on fruit quality or fruit injury. These results demonstrate that bagging peach fruit protects against various pests and diseases but has minimal effects on fruit quality. Broad adoption of this technology is highly dependent on available labor, market demands, and profitability but may be suitable for producers using direct-to-consumer market channels.

Effects of Bagging of the Panicles of Philippine Carabao Mango (Mangifera indica L.) Using Waxed Paper Bags

“…This result support the study of Hofman et al (1997) which revealed that TSS and TA were not generally affected by bagging. Similar study on bagging were conducted by Allran et al (2019), Islam et al (2019), andCampbell et al (2021) which all revealed no significant difference between the bagged and control fruit (no bag) in terms of Brix degree (TSS).…”

Influence of Bagging on the Development and Quality of Fruits

“…Thus, bagging is an excellent method to yield fruits with a very low input or residues of pesticide. In addition, bagging is able to promote the production of high-value organic fruits, as demonstrated for organic peaches in the southeastern United States by Allran et al [15], who showed that fruit quality (size, Brix degree, acidity) was similar between bagged and control fruits, and by Campbell et al [16], who reported that bagging protects against various pests and diseases but has minimal effects on organic peach quality. Similar findings were obtained by Araújo Neto et al [17] after a bagging treatment of organic guava fruits.…”

Production, Use and Recycling of Fruit Cultivating Bags in China

“…In India, this technology has been applied to the production of apples [26,27], pomegranates [28,29], guavas [30], grapes [31] and litchis [32]. In the United States, this technology is widely used in the production of apples [33] and peaches [34,35]. In Bangladesh, this technology has been successfully applied to the production of dragon fruits [36,37], mangos [38] and guavas [39].…”