Effect of Low Temperature and Different Chemicals on the Quality and Shelf Life of 'Satluj Purple' Plums

Satluj Purple plum has higher consumer acceptance than many other current sub-tropical plum cultivars, but it has a very short shelf-life. In this climacteric fruit ripening processes occur rapidly. This paper studies the effect of different chemical treatments on post-harvest quality of the fruits. Fruits were stored at low temperature conditions for 40 days. Physico-chemical characteristics were determined at 10 days interval. The physiological loss in weight and spoilage increased gradually with the advancement of storage. The pulp: stone decreased while as the TSS: acid increased continuously up to 40 days of storage in plum fruits. The reducing and non reducing sugars increased before showing a declining trend. Fruits treated with salicylic acid @ 3mmoL-1 were moderately to highly acceptable (7.42) and retained the highest pulp: stone (15.33), reducing (6.38 %) and non reducing sugars (2.54 %) even after 40 days of cold storage.