Preharvest Nitrogen and Boron Application Preserve Quality Characteristics of Red Beet Under Storage Conditions

Red beet has a high metabolic rate, and its storability is limited by detrimental quality changes during storage. One of the solutions that can reduce these changes and provide commercial attractiveness is fertilization at preharvest. The other pivotal one is cold storage to meet marketing schedules. Thus, the objective of the study is to investigate the effects of nitrogen and boron fertilization on quality traits of red beet under storage conditions. For this purpose, combined nitrogen (200 kg ha⁻¹) and boron (1000 mL ha⁻¹) fertilization were applied, and non-fertilized groups were considered as control. Subsequently, harvested whole red beets were stored at 0 °C and 4 °C with 95 ± 2% relative humidity for 3 months. The red beets were analyzed for their weight loss, respiration rate, color characteristics, dry matter, pH, SSC, betanin, vulgaxanthin‑I, and betalain contents. The results put forth that fertilization delayed reduction in color, betanin, and betalain content of red beets during storage. Additionally, respiration rate, dry matter, and betalain content in samples can be maintained significantly during storage at 0 °C, whereas at 4 °C was effective only for pH values throughout the storage. Also, studied storage temperatures and fertilization were not effective on weight loss and vulgaxanthin‑I content. In conclusion, this research has shown the possibility of improving the desirable quality and storage-life of red beets by applying nitrogen + boron fertilization. These preliminary results could be an effective tool for predicting the quality and freshness of red beets during 3 months of storage for future studies.