Effect of ethephon on fruit ripening and fruit components of durian cv. ‘Monthong’ after harvest

Abstract

The study showed that interaction between the duration of fruit ripening and fruit grade. Fruit grade A under natural ripening method (NRM) had significantly the longest duration of fruit ripening at 9 days, followed by grade B (8 days), and grades C, and D (7 days); while under ethephon-induced ripening method (ERM) for all fruit grades A, B, C, and D were only at 5 days. The 5-day ripening duration under ERM was significantly shorter than that of NRM at 3 days. The light fruit weight of fruit grades C and D had significantly shown a high percentage of weight loss per fruit, but short duration of fruit ripening compared with those heavy fruit weights (fruit grades A and B). Fruit grade A had significantly shown the highest fruit weight (3.40 kg/fruit), followed by grade B (2.69 kg/fruit), grade C (1.50 kg/fruit), and grade D (1.34 kg/fruit). Fruit weight did not change under NRM and ERM. But the percentage of weight loss per fruit under ERM was significantly lower than NRM by 7% which  mainly due to the short duration of fruit ripening under ERM which is indicated by the value of the positive correlation coefficient (r). The percentage of weight loss per fruit was positively associated with the duration of fruit ripening (r = 0.59). Therefore, the ethephon-induced ripening method (ERM) for ‘Monthong’ durian cultivar is better than that of the natural ripening method, as it contributed to having heavier fruit weight by 12% and lower percentage of weight loss per fruit by 7%. Under ERM, no effect was found on fruit weight, percentage of aril weight per fruit, percentage of pericarp weight per fruit, thickness of pericarp, and percentage of seeds weight per fruit, as compared with NRM. It is therefore suggested that the ethephon-induced ripening method should be adopted by the producers and exporters to reduce the problem on fruit weight loss and difficulties in managing the duration of durian fruit ripening after harvest