International Journal of Horticulture, 2017, Vol.7, No. 26, 239-245
244
Physiological weight loss (PLW)
Calcium chloride treatment significantly influenced the physiological weight loss of the carrot roots right after
second days of storage and subsequently afterwards (Table 6). After 2 days of storage, controlled roots exhibited
9.88% PLW which was significantly higher than calcium treated roots. After 10 days of storage the cumulative
weight loss in 3.5, 3, 2.5, 2, 1.5, 1 and 0.5 % calcium treated roots was 10.11, 8.52, 7.54, 9.02, 9.48, 9.87 and
10.91 respectively as compared to 11.25% in controlled roots. Calcium chloride treatments have been
commercially applied in apple to increase the shelf life and reduce to postharvest disorders (Sharma et al., 1996).
Table 6 Physiological weight loss (%) of carrot roots at various days after storage at HRD, Khumaltar (2016/17)
Treatment
Physiological Weight Loss (PWL %)
2 DAS
4 DAS
6 DAS
8 DAS
10 DAS
0.5% CaCl
2
8.84
7.60
5.65
6.10
10.91
1 % CaCl
2
7.82
7.13
4.81
5.74
9.87
1.5 % CaCl
2
7.24
6.99
4.68
5.50
9.48
2 % CaCl
2
7.00
6.87
4.28
5.15
9.02
2.5 % CaCl
2
6.12
6.02
3.75
4.56
7.54
3 % CaCl
2
6.75
6.69
3.90
5.02
8.52
3.5 % CaCl
2
8.39
7.25
4.90
5.86
10.11
Control (tap water)
9.88
7.86
6.35
6.23
11.25
F-test
*
*
*
*
*
LSD (0.05)
1.336
1.067
0.952
0.90
1.968
CV %
10
8.7
11.5
9.4
11.9
Note: DAS = Days After Storage
6 Conclusion
Carrot is rapidly gaining its importance as an essential nutritional commodity and income generating crops in
Nepal. The production area, quantity and productivity of carrot are increasing day by day because of its high
return per unit of land. So, improved supply chain with appropriate postharvest technologies is needed for
efficient and profitable carrot business in Nepal.
Acknowledgements
The study was conducted in the context of the project "AFACI-Postharvest". The authors are highly grateful to RDA/AFACI, Korea
for providing fund for this research. All the carrot farmers, traders, marketers and other stakeholders are also acknowledged for their
help during the study.
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