International Journal of Horticulture, 2024, Vol.14, No.5, 275-282 http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/ijh 276 This study was carried out to determine the physical and chemical characteristics of six different cultivars of apples found at Temperate Horticulture Development Center. Physical characteristics included individual fruit weight, fruit volume, fruit length, fruit width, individual seed weight, seed length and seed width and mesocarp thickness. Chemical characteristics included pH, TSS, TA and TSS/TA. They are crucial to determining the commercial value and consumer preference for the sweetness of different apple cultivars. It is very common to use the TSS/TA ratio to obtain better predictions of sweetness (Harkar et al., 2002). Apple fruit with TSS/TA ratios over 20 is considered to be sweet, while values under 20 are considered to be sour (Monteiro et al., 2018). 2 Materials and Methods 2.1 Research site The research was carried out at Temperate Horticulture Development Center (THDC), located at Gharapjhong Rural Municipality-2, Marpha, Mustang district. The center is coordinated at 28o20’ to 29o05’ N and 83o30’ to 84o15’ E with an altitude of 2,650 masl. Among four blocks of THDC (A, B, C and D), the experiment was conducted in block A from January to September 2023. 2.2 Climatic observation The meteorological data (temperature, relative humidity and precipitation) were estimated from the automatic weather station (Meteorological Station, Thakmarpha (Index No. 0604), Mustang) present in ‘Block C’ of THDC, Marpha. It is under the supervision of the Government of Nepal (Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Department of Hydrology and Meteorology). Climatic variables during the study period were observed (Figure 1). Figure 1 Mean daily minimum and maximum temperature, relative humidity and rainfall recorded at the experimental site 2.3 Plant materials and design The experiment was carried out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 6 treatments and 4 replications in a single flowering season. Six cultivars of apple (Tsukura, Saune, Red Delicious, Royal Delicious, Rich a Red Delicious and Golden Delicious) were selected as treatment which was replicated four times (four trees per treatment) (Table 1). Training of all the trees aged 12-13 years was done on the Open Centre System. The rootstock used was the crab apple. They were planted at 5 m × 5 m distance.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjQ4ODYzNA==