Role of Pre-harvest Application of Paclobutrazol and Ethephon on Fruit Quality of Winter Guava cv. Sardar

The investigation on the role of pre-harvest application of paclobutrazol and ethephon on fruit quality of winter guava cv. Sardar was conducted in the well-maintained guava orchard of Department of Agriculture, Khalsa College, Amritsar during 2016-2017. The experiment comprised of seven pre-harvest treatments viz. Paclobutrazol @ 250 ppm, 500 ppm, 750 ppm, Ethephon @ 250 ppm, 500 ppm, 750 ppm and control. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three replications. Results of the study revealed that marked variations were recorded among the pre-harvest treatments on physicochemical characters of guava. Among all treatments, paclobutrazol 750 ppm treated fruits showed maximum fruit size (6.62 cm × 6.40 cm), fruit weight (155.43 g), pulp content (87.4 %) and fruit yield (37.85 kg/plant). Whereas, the fruit bio-chemical characters were improved significantly with the use of ethephon 750 ppm (T6). Maximum TSS (10.75%), total sugars (7.89%), reducing sugars (5.86%) and ascorbic acid content (194.27 mg/100 g pulp) was observed under treatment T6 (Ethephon 750 ppm). Also, the fruits harvested from trees under treatment T6 (Ethephon 750 ppm) attained excellent fruit colour with minimum seed count.