Author(s): S. Dey, S. Chakrabarty and A. Hayat

Abstract: Traditional packaging materials like gunny bag, bamboo basket etc. can keep marigold strings fresh for only 2-3 days after harvest and those become unacceptable to the consumers very quickly. Considering importance of marigold flower in floriculture scenario of West Bengal, the present experiment was conducted during 2017 and 2018 to find out suitable packaging materials. Flower strings of fresh full-grown marigold variety Bidhan Marigold 2 were kept in three different packaging materials (i) bamboo basket lined with paper, (ii) thermocol box and (iii) CFB box respectively along with placing 100 g ice packs in the centre of packaging materials except for CFB boxes, closed tightly. After storage, marigold strings were hanged in the laboratory for subsequent qualitative evaluation of shelf life for 0,1,2,3 days. Data revealed that thermocol box was the best among the studied packaging materials considering most of the post harvest observations such as maximum shelf life after storage (3.21days), minimum weight loss (7.67%), freshness (94.84%) and acceptability (8.00).

DOI: 10.22271/09746315.2022.v18.i1.1533

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