Pre-harvest management of water, nutrients along with mulch: Implications for mango post-harvest quality

A field experiment on mango cv. Banganpalli evaluated the combined effects of drip irrigation (control, 75%, 100%, and 125% ETc), fertigation (50%, 75%, 100% recommended N and K; 100% N-K via soil application) and mulching on fruit quality at harvest and post-harvest behaviour under ambient storage. Drip irrigation at 100–125% ETc with 75–100% N-K fertigation and mulching significantly improved fruit quality attributes: higher TSS (up to 19.60 °Brix), total sugars (up to 15.96%), non-reducing sugars, ascorbic acid (up to 7.56 to 10.4 and 5.00-6.28 mg 100 g⁻¹, respectively), Brix: acid ratio (up to 83.26), and lower titratable acidity. These treatments delayed the climacteric peak, suppressed respiration rate (O₂ uptake and CO₂ evolution), retained higher fruit firmness (up to 3.3 kg cm⁻²), slowed chlorophyll degradation (higher DA-index), and extended shelf life up to 14.75 days compared to conventional flood irrigation and soil fertilization (shelf life ~10–11 days). The study demonstrates that integrated drip irrigation (100–125% ETc) and fertigation (75–100% N-K) with mulching offer an effective pre-harvest strategy to optimize both eating quality and post-harvest life of mango cv. Banganpalli.