Author(s)

Guifu Zhang^1,2, Shenxi Xie¹

¹Horticulture & Landscape College, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China.
²Nuclear Technology and Chemical & Biological College, Hubei University of Science and Engineering, Xianning, China.

Six-year Statuma mandarin (Citrus unshiu Marc. Cv. Miyagawa Wase) trees were used as materials to investigate the effects of plastic film mulching on quality and appearance of Statuma mandarin fruit during three periods of cell division, cell enlargement and mature stages. The results showed that mulching during the cell division and early-mature stages increased total sugar and reduced sugar content of fruit as well as the Vc content, compared to the control. However, the titratable acid content, fruit size, peel weight and single fruit weight were all lower than the control. Film mulching during the cell division phage resulted in higher edible fruit rate, while the fruit shape index was similar to the control. Mulching during the early-mature stage didn’t affect the edible rate of fruit, but caused lower fruit shape index. Compared to the control, film mulching during the cell enlargement period caused lower total and reducing sugar content, titratable acid content and edible rate, while the Vc content was a little bit higher than the control. In addition, the fruit size, peel weight, single fruit weight and fruit shape index were all lower than the control. Mulching during the early-mature period effectively enhanced the content of total and reduced sugar and Vc and decreased the titratable acid content. Hence, it increased fruit quality but had negative effect on fruit appearance.

Statuma Mandarin, Film Mulching, Fruit Quality, Fruit Appearance

Zhang, G. and Xie, S. (2014) Effects of Plastic Film Mulching on Quality and Appearance of Statuma Mandarin Fruit. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 5, 3829-3835. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2014.526401.