Use Pre-Harvest Treatments To Keeping Quality and Long Shelf Life of Some Date Palm Cultivars

This study was carried out on three date palm cultivars (Samany, Amhat and Sewy) grown in Abo-Rawash area Giza Governorate, Egypt. This work aimed to study the influence of pre-harvest treatments as direct spray on fruits by solutions boron (0.5% in the form of boric acid) and calcium (10 g/L (w/v) in the form of calcium nitrate) alone or in combination to improve quality of date palm fruits during cold storage and increasing marketing period (Shelf life). Fruits were picked in maturity stage and stored at 0.0 ± 1° C and 85 – 90% relative humidity (RH). Fruit quality characteristics i.e. weight loss, decay %, fruit firmness (Lbinch2), total soluble solid percentage (TSS %), total acidity percentage (TA %), total soluble sugars and tannins % were evaluated. Assay of the stored fruits was made at 20 days intervals and additional fruits were left at room temperature (20± 2° C) for one week as stimulated marketing period. The results showed that all spraying treatments gave the best effect in fruit quality assessments when compared with control. The combined treatment gave the highest value of fruit TSS% and total soluble sugars while decreasing TA% weight loss % and fruit decay % during cold storage for 40 days. Furthermore, the same trend was observed after cold storage for week on 20± 2° C. It can be recommended spraying date palm fruits twice with the combined treatment of 0.5% boric acid + 10 g/L (w/v) calcium nitrate to improve fruit quality during cold storage and shelf life period.