Extending harvest season and shelf life and improving quality characters of Barhee dates

The present study was conducted in order to extend harvest season and maintain fruit quality for better marketability of Barhee date palms growing in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Palms were by preharvest foliar sprayed at the hababouk stage and at the beginning of fruit color break with 10 ppm CPPU ‘cytophex’, 8Mm putrescine (PUT) and 50 ppm each of Gibberellin A3 (GA3), 1-Naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), 6-Benzylaminopurine (BA) and salicylic acid (SA). Harvest date was delayed by one month with NAA and GA3, three weeks with putrescine and SA, and by two weeks with cytophex and BA from the commercial harvest date. All treatments decreased skin color intensity and carotenoids content and increased acidity as compared with control. The fruits turning to the postharvest rutab stage and the percent of total soluble solids (TSS) loss during storage at 0°C and 85-90% relative humidity were reduced by all treatments. The percentage of fruits reaching rutab stage during storage was 12.25, 16.25, 22.34, 12.4, 37.33, and 24.33, in the first season, for NAA, GA3, cytophex, putrescine, BA and SA, respectively. The corresponding value for the second season was 11.32, 18.46, 31.38, 19.45, 33.33 and 20.33%, respectively. The incidence of postharvest fruit decay during cold storage did not significantly differ among all sprayed growth regulators. The GA3, NAA and putrescine treatments had significant higher effect in extending shelf life and decreasing fruit weight loss percent than the other treatments. It is concluded that the sprayed growth regulators had positive influence on extending harvest season and shelf life of Barhee dates without any deterioration in fruit characteristics before and during cold storage.