Post-harvest quality of onion bulbs in a controlled environment

Abstract

The onion bulbs’ post-harvest quality is essential for good commercialization; the longest storage time is critical to the producer in choosing the cultivar. Thus, this work aimed to evaluate the post-harvest quality of onion bulbs under storage periods in a controlled environment. The experiment was installed in a factorial scheme (6x4), represented by six onion cultivars (BR29, Itajubá, Mulata, Omega, Rainha, and Salto Grande), evaluated in four storage periods (40, 80, 120, and 160 days), in a randomized design, with three replications. The parameters of fresh matter loss, skin strength, bulb firmness, skin shine, pH, soluble solids, titratable acidity, and soluble solids and titratable acidity were analyzed. The cultivar Salto Grande presented better conservation of the physical-defined characteristics in the post-harvest at controlled temperature, less loss of mass of fresh matter, and more significant maintenance of the feature of skin strength, bulb firmness, soluble solids, and titratable acidity. At the same time, cultivar BR29 showed more significant losses in the studied attributes and had less storage capacity among the evaluated cultivars.

Keywords:
physical-chemical analysis; post-harvest conservation; storage; titratable acidity; soluble solids