Chitosan-based foliar application modulated the yield and biochemical attributes of peach (Prunus persica L.) cv. Early Grand

Abstract Background Peach fruits are highly perishable leading to many pre- and post-harvest problems, which adds to the reduction in the potential yield and productivity. Chitosan is a natural polysaccharide, produced after alkaline chitin deacetylation. It is one of the most preferred biopolymers due to its biocompatibility, antioxidant, anticancer, biodegradability, antimicrobial, and non-toxic properties as well as being an economical material. A pre-harvesting experiment was carried out based on the problems of peach and the importance of chitosan. Results Peach trees were foliar sprayed with different concentrations of chitosan (0, 0.50, 0.75, and 1.0%) at different times (30, 50, and 70 days after full bloom) to elucidate the effect of chitosan to peach yield and fruit quality. The results showed that foliar application of chitosan (1%) caused significant increases in fruit weight, volume, tree yield−1, fruit firmness, titratable acidity, and ascorbic acid content but caused significant decreases in total soluble solid fruit juice pH and disease incidence of peach fruit. Similarly, foliar application of chitosan after 50 days of full bloom increased fruit weight, volume, yield tree−1, firmness, titratable acidity, and ascorbic acid content with the number of fruit kg−1, total soluble solids, juice pH, and disease incidence as compared to other application times. Conclusions It is concluded that chitosan at 1% applied after 50 days of full bloom improved most of the peach attributes studied compared to the other concentrations of chitosan at 0.50 and 0.75, and control for the production of quality peach fruit.