Improving yield and quality of Manfalouty pomegranate growing in newly reclaimed soils by using bagging and some foliar spray treatments

Abstract: We looked into bagging and spraying as potential methods for increasing the yield and quality of Manfaloty pomegranate trees. During the 2020 and 2021 seasons, 7-year-old trees were used in the investigation. They were grown in calcareous sandy soil at high temperatures. Six treatments were used to examine the effects on fruit yield and quality parameters at harvest time in the first week of September. These treatments included foliar spraying with kaolin and potassium silicate treatments, polypropylene bags and bagging with white and yellow paper. Results indicated that white paper bagging resulted in the lowest percentage of fruit cracking and sunburn compared to the control and other treatments. White paper bagging increased fruit yield, weight, length and diameter. Additionally, compared to the other treatments, the application of kaolin spray increased the biochemical contents of the fruit (TSS, total sugars, vitamin C, anthocyanin, and juice) while lowering acidity and tannins. We concluded that using kaolin spray and white paper bags could help increase the yield and quality of Manfaloty pomegranate grown under challenging conditions.