Effect of pre-harvest spray of iron and salicylic acid on some characteristics of plum ‎‎(Prunus salicina cv. Flavor supreme pluot) at two storage temperature‎

Storage of horticultural crops is associated with pre and postharvest treatments. For this purpose, an experiment was conducted in two steps. The first step, salicylic acid (0, 2 and 4 mM) and iron chelate (0, 0.1 and 1 g/l) were sprayed three times at 30, 60 and 90 days after full bloom on plum cv. Flavor supreme pluot. The second step was carried out at storage with two temperatures (1 and 4 °C).The experiment was performed as factorial split-plot in a completely randomized block design with three replications. Qualitative characteristics including tissue firmness, vitamin C, titratable acid, total soluble solids and anthocyanins content were measured. The results showed that salicylic acid treatment had a significant effect on TSS, TA, vitamin C and anthocyanins at 1% level and tissue firmness at 5% level. Iron application was significant at 1% level on anthocyanins. In addition, all of the studied characteristics were significantly changed during storage at both temperatures. Spraying plum trees with salicylic acid with 2 mM concentration retained total soluble solids, vitamin C, anthocyanin, tissue firmness and titratable acid increased more than the 4 mM. Also, treatment with iron (0.1 g/l) improved fruit quality. In general, 1 °C temperature was more effective than 4 °C and maintained the quality and marketability of fruits up to 60 and 40 days, respectively.