The present study explored the use of some post harvest treatments to extend the shelf life of ber. Matured ber fruits were treated with Chitosan (0.5%, 1%, 2%), Guar gum (1%, 1.5%, 2%), Gum tragacanth (1%, 1.5%, 2%) for 16 days of storage. All treated fruits showed lower loss in fruit weight, less spoilage and long marketable life in comparison to untreated fruits. Guar gum (1.5%) proved very useful for reducing loss in weight, shriveling even a er 12 days of storage. At the end of the storage maximum TSS, acidity, ascorbic acid, total sugar, reducing sugar were observed in Guar gum(1.5%) treated fruits followed by Gum tragacanth(2%).

A field trial was conducted to study the effect of shoot pruning on growth, flowering and fruiting characteristics of different guava cultivars. The experiment was carried out during Jan. 2018 to June 2019. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with seven cultivars as treatments including L-49 (T₁), Allahabad Safeda (T₂), Baruipur (T₃), Doodh Khaja (T₄), Kafri (T₅), Bhagalpur (T₆) and Harichal (T₇). Shoot pruning in guava is an alternative practice used to control the excessive growth and vigor of the plant. The plants were pruned from 120 cm above the ground level as heading back to facilitate the production of new shoots from below the cut point and allow the primary shoots. These results revealed that, guava cultivar baruipur was best in terms of number of primary shoots (58.17), length of primary shoots (135.82 cm) at 12 months after pruning, flowering percentage (66.11%) and better fruit characteristics.

Burmese grape (Baccaurea sapida Muell. Arg.) belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae, is a minor underexploited fruit crop grown wild as well as under cultivation in Nepal, India, Myanmar, Bangladesh, China, Thailand, for fresh consumption. It is a dioecious plant and reported to have an excellent nutritive value, but mainly grown in homestead condition mostly in neglected ways. The present study was aimed to characterize the germplasm nature, details of flowering and fruiting system of Burmese grape. Tree growth habit and crown shape of all the accessions surveyed were semi erect and irregular, respectively. The colour of the male flowers varied from yellow to green yellow shades while the colour of the female flowers varied from yellow to yellow green and green yellow shades. The variation present on fruit length (2.81 cm to 3.80 cm), fruit weight (12.25g to 22.95g), pulp percentage (49.82% to 65.33%), total soluble solids (9.00º to 13.10ºBrix), tritatable acidity (0.73mg to 1.28mg/100g fruit pulp) and ascorbic acid content ranged from (23.18mg to 57.80mg/100g fruit pulp) suggest suitable selection method for identification of promising Burmese grape genotypes. Bangladesh J. Bot. 52(4): 989-998, 2023 (December)