The studies were carried out at the Regional Horticulture Research Centre of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Shibpur, Narsingdi, Bangladesh during July 2017 to September 2018. BARI Dragon fruit-1 was used in the study as variety. Cumulative rainfall is about 119 mm during August to May with an average 82.9% relative humidity. The mean maximum and minimum temperature during cropping period were 36.29 and 21.750C, respectively. The fruit quality, chemical composition and nutritive value were evaluated at the laboratory of Postharvest Technology Division, BARI.
Flowers were tagged at anthesis to determine the stage of fruit development. The pre-selecting development stage and/or days to harvest were counted from anthesis/fruit setting. Ten randomly selected fruits from each pillar were harvested at three days intervals started on 22 (±1) days after anthesis (DAA) until 34 DAA (±1) to determine their growth and maturity. Hence there were 5 maturity stages M1- 22 DAA, M2- 25 DAA, M3- 28 DAA, M4- 31 DAA and M5- 34 DAA (±1) Characteristic subjective and objective maturity and quality traits were recorded and evaluated during the developmental stage, harvesting time, immediately after harvest and subsequent storage days and condition. At each harvesting date, out of 10 fruits, 2 were used to determine physicochemical properties like fruit length, diameter, weight, firmness, external and internal colour, dry matter content, TSS, pH, acid, Vit. C content, sugars and β-carotene content. The rest 7 fruits of immediately after harvest, were sorted for storage studies. Fruits were placed in each of 2L plastic box having some holes, which were weighed before and after keeping the fruits. Boxes were kept in ambient room conditions (25 ± 1 °C and 70 ± 5% RH). One replicated fruit was observed daily up to 60 % rotting. The data were recorded on loss of visual quality, weight loss, firmness, external and internal colour, dry matter content, TSS, pH, acid, Vit. C content, sugars and β-carotene content. Evaluation of sensory attributes: Sensory evaluation, based on general visual appeals, colour, crispiness, flavour, taste, and visible structural integrity was conducted using a 7-point hedonic scale (Hernandez-Munoz et al., 2008). Fruits were selected on the basis of uniform size, shape and color. Data of various parameters were analyzed for analysis of variance according to Gomez and Gomez (1984) with the help of MSTAT-C programme.