Effect of Bagging on Growth and Ripening of Litchi Fruit cv. Hong Huay

Abstract

The experiment was conducted based on factorial (2x5) in CRD comprising 2 factors. The first factor was the fruit age after fruit set (1 and 2 months) and the second one was the bagging material (newspaper bag, remay bag, carbon bag and transparent plastic bag). The study was carried out at farmer’s litchi plot on highland of Mae-Rim district, Chiang Mai by random the ‘ Hong Huay’ litchi’s fruit clusters (with average 20 fruits/cluster) at 1 and 2 months after fruit set. Total of 10 clusters (replications) per treatment were then  bagged by studies material. Fruits were harvested at the time that control fruit riped. The result revealed that bagging at two months fruit age significantly reduced the number of fruit drop, i.e. the remay bag and carbon bag. The remay bag could also solve the problem of fruit browning and fruit cracking. The red color of fruit peel was however the best by using the transparent plastic bag and remay bag. All fruit ages and bag types had no effect on fruit size and fruit ripening, which indicated by total soluble solid (TSS) and total tritable acid (TA).