Influence of bunch bagging on the development of banana Prata (AAB) and prevention of chilling injury in the field

Abstract

Banana is extremely sensitive to chilling injury (CI). It shows symptoms of peel browning at approximately 12°C and severe symptoms at 6°C. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of different bagging materials on development of banana bunch (Musa spp. AAB cv. Prata) and preventing CI in field. The study was carried in Jacupiranga, São Paulo, Brazil, in a completely randomized design in 2 × 9 factorial, in which treatments were two years of formation of bunch and nine bagging materials, with eight replicates. Bagging was performed in the autumn and winter to ensure the occurrence of CI in the field, and the evaluations after harvesting and fruit maturation. The bagging materials consisted of blue transparent polyethylene, white nonwoven fabric, white opaque polyethylene, bubble wrap, white laminated non-woven fabric, double paper, blue transparent polyethylene plus kraft paper, blue transparent polyethylene plus white non-woven fabric and non-bagged. In 2013, the bunches of were exposed to 182.02 h of temperatures lower than 12C and 5.25 h of temperatures lower than 5C, while in 2014, only 70.76 h of temperatures lower than 12C was provided. Bunches formed in 2013 had longer exposure periods between flowering and harvest due to the low temperatures, but exhibited higher mass than those formed in 2014. The CI index was only 1.38 in 2013 and 1.00 in 2014 (p<0.05). On the colder days of 2013 and 2014, bagging raised peel temperature 1.91 and 3.17°C, respectively. The bagging material influenced yield, the accumulation of nutrients in fruits and the hue angle of peel. Double paper promoted fruits with more yellow peel.

Performance of Different Bunch Cover Materials to Improve Quality of Cavendish Banana Cultivated during Winter and Summer in Thailand

“…Lower light penetration through a material limits chlorophyll pigment formation during fruit growth and development [30]. This observation agreed with previous studies on other cover materials having low light penetration, for example, ALF on Cavendish banana [4,22,31], paper and polyethylene (PE) on "Prata" banana [3], and black PE on "Nanica" banana [19]. In previous studies, a reduction of L* value on Cavendish banana [4,15], as well as an increase in hue angle (H • ) value on banana "Nianca" [19], were observed in fruit covered with nonwoven material.…”

“…Many studies have investigated the effect of light intensity on fruit color and lightness under application of cover materials [3,4,19,22,30,31]. Here, ALF and the control significantly increased fruit color lightness (L*) compared with the other three treatments (Table 3).…”

“…Light transmission through cover material samples of size 10 × 10 cm was examined, using light source intensity of 2.78 × 10 5 lux, adapted from the method of Lima et al [3]. The transmitted light was measured by a light meter (Tenmars TM-204, Taipei, Taiwan) and recorded as percentage of transparency (%).…”

“…CI and SB symptoms tended to increase fruit maturity but to reduce total soluble solids or sugar content, which is an indicator of fruit flavor. In addition, both symptoms caused physiological disorder such as dull grey peel color, pulp browning and fingertip burning [3,4], which affect the visual appearance of fruits and fail to meet quality requirements for export. Information from a farm manager (personal interview) revealed that CI and SB symptoms in Cavendish banana grown resulted in annual field losses of around 5 to 20%.…”

“…PE covers showed no effect on fruit size of Cavendish banana [10,11]. A plethora of authors has reported the use of non-perforated polyethylene (NPPE) during winter and summer to mitigate CI and SB effects on banana bunch, respectively [1][2][3]12]. Recently, the use of nonwoven (NW: polypropylene (PP)-based spun-bond fabrics) and aluminum foil (ALF) as cover materials for longan and Cavendish banana was shown to reduce fruit cracking due to low temperature and drought stresses in cross-winter off-season and SB, respectively [13,14].…”