International Journal of Horticulture, 2025, Vol.15, No.2, 51-60 http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/ijh 52 heightened productivity potential there are considerable post-harvest losses. The adoption of post-harvest techniques lags among the farmers, primarily due to a lack of technical knowledge and insufficient extension visits (Dhakal and Maharjan, 2023). The alternate solutions such as use of “Cold storage” is not practical as well as feasible as green tomatoes develop chilling injury at temperatures lower than 12 °C (Rugkong, 2009), later inducing physiological disorders such as surface pitting (Soleimani Aghdam et al., 2012), total failure of fruit color development (Rugkong, 2009), increased susceptibility to Alternaria rot (Ding et al., 2002), and prove to be detrimental to tomato flavor quality (Maul et al., 2000). Other solutions such as modified atmospheric packaging, controlled atmospheric packaging, etc. require high investment cost, energy and technology which developing countries like Nepal cannot facilitate. For that reason, research on alternative postharvest management methods that are economically friendly, readily available, and feasible for use by marginal farmers in developing countries is imperative such as the use of CaCl2 as mentioned by Arah et al. (2016). Exogenous treatment with GA3 in tomatoes reduced TSS and pH, but maintained high levels of titratable acidity and ascorbic acid content. The optimum concentration for such effects was reported to be 0.1% and 40 mg/L, respectively (Pila et al., 2010; Singh and Patel, 2014). These findings indicate that GA3 can delay respiration and metabolic activity, hence improving postharvest quality and extending shelf life under different storage conditions. This is in agreement with the findings of Demes et al. (2021) and Dhami et al. (2023).The treatments of calcium chloride of variable concentrations, such as 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2%, were found to exert a great impact on the post-harvest quality and shelf life of tomatoes by reducing TSS, pH, and sugar levels while maintaining higher titratable acidity and ascorbic acid content in tomatoes (Pila et al., 2010; Mazumder et al., 2021). These treatments effectively retard metabolic activity, slowing down the ripening process and hence increasing the shelf life. Very often, optimum effects were obtained at 1.5% or 2% CaCl2, under both ambient and cold storage conditions (Abbasi et al, 2013; Demes et al., 2021; Dhami et al., 2023). Pre- and post-harvest treatments of SA have been found to influence tomatoes' quality and shelf-life characteristics, which are reflected in higher retention of ascorbic acid and titratable acidity, delay in accumulation of TSS, and extension in storage life. From these, the best results recorded varied between 0.4-1.2 mM on account of conditions prevalent for storage and the different varieties of tomato, reported earlier on by Baninaiem et al. (2016); Mandal et al., (2016); Kumar et al. (2018) and Chavan and Sakhale (2020). The present investigation aims to study the impact of exogenous application of plant growth regulators gibberellic acid, salicylic acid, and calcium chloride as a post-harvest treatment method on tomato chemical quality and shelf life under ambient conditions. 2 Materials and Methods 2.1 Procurement of tomato (sample) The “Shrijana” variety of tomatoes, the most grown variety throughout the seasons in Nepal, was procured from farmers in Shankharapur municipality, Sankhu, Kathmandu. Fresh healthy tomatoes harvested in the turning and pink /breaker stage, evenly proportioned, unbruised, and with no injury and signs of disease were selected and collected. 2.2 Experimental design and treatment detail This study employed the Completely Randomized Design (CRD), which consisted of 10 treatments, each replicated three times (Table 1). The tomatoes were cleaned, washed, sterilized using sodium hypochlorite (500 ppm for 10 min), and air dried before dipping in respective chemical solutions. A sample size of 10 tomatoes was allocated for each treatment. After treatment, the fruits were kept in a makeshift aluminum bowl. Data were taken in alternate day intervals until signs of decay or spoilage were observed and then, the chemical parameters were analyzed after 15 days of storage and on the 25th day of storage until commercial condition. The ambient temperature of the storage room was noted.
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