Irrigation and Mulching Effects on Lemon Peel Properties

The peel is a natural package that protects the flesh from insect and microbial invasion and limits water loss and gas exchange. Marketing of lemon depends on the peel quality, thus, for the peel to become marketable, it must form and develop with few defects and be resilient enough to maintain its integrity on the tree and during postharvest storage. Moisture regulation is of utmost importance to get aimed fruit quality in lemon. As lemon is challenged with serious problem of fruit cracking which is directly related with peel parameters so timely scheduling of irrigation and moisture conservation needs to be emphasized on priority. To study the impact of moisture regulation, an experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design comprising of six irrigation treatments with and without mulching at “Punjab Government Progeny Orchard & Nursery, Attari, Amritsar” during the fruiting years 2005 and 2006. Use of black polythene as mulch in combination with frequent irrigation after 3 days influenced the peel parameters the most.