Tropical Fruits (Crop Production Science in Horticulture, 20)

The first of two volumes, this book covers major tropical fruits such as avocado, litchi, mango, papaya and pineapple. Early chapters describe the tropics and its soils and deal with key issues such as tree management and postharvest handling, updated and expanded to include best handling practices and food safety issues and the way to address these issues in marketing. Following these are self-contained chapters on single fruits which provide in-depth studies of botany, areas of origin and distribution, descriptions of ecological requirements and world production and utilization of each fruit. Propagation & cultural practices from ancient to modern are described to show the regional differences that environmental and biological pressures exert on fruit production and fruit quality. Tropical Fruits is essential reading for students and teachers of horticulture as well as horticultural industry personnel and policy-makers.