Impact of Fruit Bagging with Different Coloured Non-woven Polypropylene Bags on Yield Attributes in Grapes

Abstract

Background: Grape is one of the important cash crops cultivated in India. The grape bunches during growth stages are adversely affected by various biotic and abiotic factors which in turn affects the yield and quality. In addition, high usage of agrochemicals in grape cultivation increased concern over pesticide residues among consumers. Therefore, an alternative technique of fruit bagging to enhance the yield and quality as well as to minimize pest and disease infestation is emphasized. Bagging of grape bunches also aids in preventing the agrochemicals entry into the fruits. Methods: A field experiment was conducted to study the impact of fruit bagging on yield attributes in grape cv. Muscat Hamburg at Coimbatore during winter (August - December, 2018) and summer seasons (January - May, 2019). The grape clusters were covered with non-woven UV stabilized polypropylene bags of different colours viz., blue, white, yellow, red and green immediately after fruit set and were removed before harvest. The unbagged clusters were treated as control. Result: In the present study, the grape clusters covered with white colour non-woven UV stabilized polypropylene bags was found to be superior for yield attributes viz., bunch weight (255.03 g and 294.80 g), berry diameter (15.39 mm and 15.97 mm), berry weight (4.30 g and 4.85 g), pulp weight (3.88 g and 4.44 g), peel weight (0.28 g and 0.31 g) and yield per vine (7.7 kg and 8.8 kg) in both summer and winter season crops respectively. Hence, the present study emphasizes that fruit bagging improves the yield attributes in grapes.

Influence of Bagging on the Development and Quality of Fruits

“…Quite recently, Pisciotta et al [98] reported that a bagging treatment is effective both in red and white table grapes; in fact, bagging led to a yield increase for the white varieties "Italia" and "Regal Seedless" and also for the red cultivar "Autumn Royal", whose bunches, although of a slightly lighter skin color, showed in-creased color uniformity, reduced color variation and improved berry hardness. Furthermore, the bagging with white color non-woven polypropylene of "Muscat Hamburg", which is a black berried grape, suitable both for wine-making and as table grape, determined a higher yield in terms of bunch weight, berry weight and wine yield [99].…”

“…after fruit set non-woven UV stabilized polypropylene of different colors improved yield (both in summer and winter season) [99] Grape "Kyoho"…”

Production, Use and Recycling of Fruit Cultivating Bags in China

“…In Japan, this technology has long been applied to the production of pears [23], apples [24] and peaches [25]. 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].…”

“…Among them, as shown in Figure 7b, the applied nylon fruit bags are mainly white and black [79]. As shown in Figure 7c, the non-woven fruit bags are mainly white and green [31,80]. At the same time, these two types of fruit bags have been widely used in bagging fruit such as dragon fruits [60], grapes [11], mangos [53] and litchis [61] in southern China due to their advantages in ventilation and insect prevention.…”