Reversal of Gamma-ray-induced Susceptibility to Decay of Potato Tubers and Tomato Fruit by Methyl Ester of Indolyl-3-Acetic Acid

Abstract

Potatoes. ‘Up-to-date’ potatoes were washed after lifting and stored for one week at room temperature. They were not completely cured at the end of this period. On the eighth day, they were packaged individually in perforated polyethylene bags and half the tubers were irradiated with 10 krad of cobalt-60 γ-rays at the rate of 2.5 krad/min. One day after irradiation, half the irradiated and a similar number of control tubers were dipped in a 1,000 p.p.m. solution of methyl ester of indolyl-3-acetic acid (IAA) for 25 min. Simultaneously, the remaining tubers from both the irradiated as well as the control lots were dipped in distilled water for the same period. Tubers belonging to all the four treatments were afterwards stored at room temperature (23°–35° C; relative humidity, 50–85 per cent).