Performance of Different Bunch Cover Materials to Improve Quality of Cavendish Banana Cultivated during Winter and Summer in Thailand

Performance of different cover materials on improving Cavendish banana quality was examined during winter and summer. The banana bunch was covered with a thin nonwoven innermost layer, followed by cover materials arranged from inner to outer as follows. (1) Control (commercial cover), paper/polystyrene sheet (PS)/non-perforated blue polyethylene (NPPE), (2) nonwoven (NW)/NPPE, (3) waterproof nonwoven (WPNW), (4) aluminum foil (ALF), and (5) WPNW + ALF. For the summer trial, control without PS layer was applied. Material properties including thickness, light transmissivity and heat energy (Qx) were evaluated. Results showed that Qx values transferred through PS sheet, NW, WPNW and ALF were not significantly different. ALF exhibited the lowest light transmissivity, associated with the highest fruit lightness (L*) and lowest fruit weight. For the winter trial, all cover materials exhibited chilling injury on fruit caused by temperatures below 10 °C. For the summer trial, five treatments prevented sunburn defect. Under field air temperature of 47.5 °C, ALF exhibited the lowest temperature (31.6 °C). All cover materials reduced hand and fruit sizes, whereas WPNW resulted in an increase in total soluble solids and prevented fading of the green peel color. Results suggested that WPNW, with reduced layers as environmentally friendly and reusable materials, had potential as a cover material to improve the quality of Cavendish banana.