Management of Storage Decay of Strawberry Caused by Botrytis cineria by Using Organic Salt Coating

The study analyses an experimental investigation for managing the storage decay of strawberries caused by Botrytis cineria and extending the shelf life of strawberry using inexpensive and environmentally safe organic salts. Three organic salts were used (i) Magnesium chloride (ii) Sodium chloride (iii) Calcium chloride. Fresh fruit was coated with different salt concentrations of 10%, 20%, and 30% using a cotton swab. . One chemical TBZ was also used as fruit coating materials with same concentrations of 10%, 20%, and 30%. All these fruits were placed in polythene zipper bags and rotting symptoms were checked after 2-, 3- and 4-days intervals. Recorded data was subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 5% level of significance and for statistical analysis by using LSD test and “Statistics” software. Among all the organic salts, magnesium chloride exhibited maximum growth inhibition (5.248) followed by sodium chloride (10.619), calcium chloride (11.833), as compared to control.