POST-HARVEST AND QUALITATIVE PERFORMANCE OF HYBRID CULTIVARS OF CAULIFLOWER GROWN AT DANG CONDITION
The study was conducted at Tulsipur, Dang for two years (2021 and 2022 A.D.) to assess postharvest quality performance of hybrid cauliflower. Five hybrid cauliflower cultivars viz. Snow Best, Snow Crown, Super White Top, Rami and Damy were replicated four times in Randomized Complete Block Design. Freshly harvested curds from respective plots were considered in this study. Highest leaf dry matter (13.59%) and TSS (7.0600Brix) was found in Super White Top and Snow Crown, respectively whereas lowest leaf dry matter (11.50%) and TSS (5.120Brix) in Rami. The color (7.820), compactness score (8.165) in Snow Crown and appearance score (7.846) in Snow Best was highest whereas lowest color (6.290), compactness (6.040) and appearance score (5.39) in Rami. Super White Top showed lowest physiological loss in curd weight with jacket leaves i.e. 13.99%, 20.21% and 27.66% at 5, 7 and 9 days after harvesting (DAH) respectively whereas Rami showed the highest loss i.e. 19.02%, 24.36%, and 30.73% at 5, 7 and 9 DAH, respectively. Lowest physiological losses in curd weight without jacket leaves recorded were 13.29%, 18.15%, and 23.70 3% at 3, 5 and 7 (DAH,) respectively in Snow Crown and 29.78% at 9 DAH in Super White Top whereas, the highest loss i.e. 15.46%, 24.65% and 29.56% at 3, 5 and 7 DAH respectively in Dami and 37.80% at 9DAH Rami. Lowest spoilage loss of curd with and without jacket leaves was recorded in Snow Crown 29.23% and 35.79% respectively whereas the highest in Damy cultivar i.e. 35.31% and 43.60% respectively.