Fruit Bagging: An Approach for Control of Fruit Fly Infestation and Quality Improvement in Guava

Abstract

This study executed at experimental site of Horticultural Research Institute, Faisalabad (central Punjab) during March- July 2020-2021 to scrutinize the impact of fruit bagging to control fruit fly infestation and overall quality of guava fruit. Three bagging materials viz. butter paper, brown paper (Chinese), non-woven selected for the research purpose and unwrapped fruits were taken as control treatment (To). The research was planned according to randomized complete block design (RCBD) replicated thrice. All the treatments exhibited significant impact on different traits evaluated. Enhanced fruit firmness, fruit size, ascorbic acid contents and fruit weight noted in wrapped fruits in comparison to un-wrapped fruit. Fruits attained maximum size (3108.25mm2) and weight (133.25a g) under brown paper bag followed by non-woven bag (3091mm2) and (131g) respectively. Total soluble solid (TSS) contents of the fruit were observed maximum (10.18 Brix) in non-woven bag whereas highest titratable acidity (0.77%) was recorded under control treatment. Highest ascorbic acid contents (214.25mg /100g) were recorded in non-woven bag. Disease incidence (2.25%) and fruit fly infestation (2.13%) were found minimum in non-woven bag. Among all the treatments, non-woven material was observed to be the best to control fruit fly infestation as well as overall improvement in Guava fruit quality.