Physiological Disorders:Maturity Staining/Bronzing
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- It is a stress related disorder .
Symptoms include discolouration and cracking of the peel. It begins as a light brown tinge on the outer.
- exposed portion of fingers (Image1), progresses into reddish brown stripes and patches and finally develops into solid dark brown lesions. Later this dries and forms longitudinal cracks.
- The cells of the underlying layers of banana peel expand at a faster rate for a long period of time than epidermal cells. This pattern of growth gives rise to a point of weakness at the cell edge.
- The epidermal cells are subjected to circumferential stress during fruit growth and it exceeds its elastic limit and separation of cells at anticlinal walls of adjacent epidermal cells. Hence, red brown discoloration occurs.
