Calcium Chloride Foliar Application Increases Production Efficiency and Maintains the Postharvest Quality of Sweet Tamarind

Abstract

          Fungal infection is one of the serious problems found in the pod of sweet tamarind which degrades their quality and shelf life.Therefore, this study is aimed to investigate the optimal calcium chloride foliar application reducing fungal infection before and after harvest in the pods of sweet tamarind cv. Si Thong. It was found that sweet tamarind treated with 0.5% calcium chloride three times before harvesting three months had the highest total yield per plant 26.89 kg per plant, pod weight 39.56 g and pod length 18.16 cm. In addition, sweet tamarind treated with calcium chloride had higher firmness and peel calcium content than other treatments. However, the quality of sweet tamarind such as soluble solids, titratable acidity and vitamin C were not statistically different among treatments. After storage at room temperature 30 ± 2°C for three months, sweet tamarind treated 0.5% calcium chloride three times before harvesting three months had the lowest fungal count of 1.0×10² CFU/g. In terms of economic returns, sweet tamarind treated with 0.5% calcium chloride three times before harvesting three months had the highest income of 43,024 baht per rai and profit increased by 26.22% when compared with the other treatment. Therefore, foliar application of 0.5% calcium chloride three times before harvesting three months was highly effective in increasing yield and reducing quality loss of sweet tamarind.