Horticulture Research Laboratory
Goals
- Enhancing the shelf life, quality and nutritive value of horticultural crops available to domestic and overseas consumers
- Curtailing postharvest losses and solving specific postharvest problems in horticultural crops during storage and distribution in domestic and export markets
- Improving yield and quality of fruit crops through sustainable production technology
Research Staff and Postgraduate students
- Dr. Zora Singh, Foundation Associate Professor Postharvest Horticulture
- Associate Professor John Janes
- Technical Officer
- PhD students six - eight
- MSc students two
- Visiting Scientists 1-2/year
Current Research Projects
- Regulation of Berry Colour Development in Crimson Seedless Table Grapes
- Sustainable bush produce systems for the arid zone ("Bush produce systems") - "Post-harvest storage and produce quality"
Research Facilities and Equipment
- Two temperature control rooms
- Six temperature and humidity control cabinets
- Hunter Lab Colour Flex
- Electronic pressure tester
- Digital refractometer
- Infra Red Gas Analyser (Servomex CO 2 and O 2 analyser)
- UV/VIS Spectrophotometer
- Agilent Gas Chromatograph -6890N
- Two chest freezers
- Freezer - 80°C
- Temperature controlled water bath
- Fruit quality equipment used for analysis.
Current research areas
Research in horticulture focuses in the areas of
- Postharvest Physiology of horticultural produce
- Impact of pre-harvest and postharvest factors on shelf life and postharvest quality
- Physiology of fruit ripening
- Ethylene management during ripening and storage of horticultural crops
- Regulation of fruit colour and aroma
- Controlled atmosphere (CA) storage of fruits
- Modified atmosphere packaging of fruits
- Production Technology of fruit crops
- Chemical control of suckers in olives
- Mechanism of Fruitlet Abscission and Fruit Ripening of Mango- with a Particular Reference to Polyamines.
- Regulation of Fruit colour development in apple.
- Genetic transformation of fruit and other horticultural crops
- Towards Development of Plant Regeneration and Gene Transfer Technology in Mango. (Zora Singh and SC Tan Agriculture Western Australia)
Current PhD Research Projects on Postharvest Physiology
- Role of polyamines in mango fruit ripening (Zora Singh)
- Systematic development of edible coating to extend shelf life of fresh fruit (Zora Singh and Dr Padmini, Chemical Engineering)
- Biochemical Aspects and Control of Chilling Injury in Mango Fruit. Mr.S. Nair, PhD student, Supervisor: Zora Singh and Associate supervisor: SC Tan, AgWA
- Biochemical Aspects of Volatile Aroma Production of Mango Fruits. Mr. H Lalel, PhD student, Supervisor: Zora Singh and Associate supervisor: SC Tan, AgWA
- Postharvest quality management of strawberry. Mrs. Lince Mukkun (PhD), Supervisor: Zora Singh and Associate supervisor: Dennis R. Phillips, AgWA
- Mechanism of Fruitlet Abscission and Fruit Ripening of Mango- with a Particular Reference to Polyamines. Mr. A.U. Malik, PhD student, Supervisor: Zora Singh and Associate supervisors: Dr K. Kesavan, AgWA and Mr. S Dhaliwal, UWA.
- Development of gene transfer system in mango. Mr. V. Agrez PhD student, Supervisor: Zora Singh and Associate supervisor: SC Tan, AgWA)
- Regulation of Fruit colour development in apple. Ms S Kulur PhD student, Supervisor Zora Singh and Co supervisor A/Prof J Janes
- Evaluation of edible coating to extend shelf life and improve quality of mango. Mrs Mimi MSc student, Supervisor Zora Singh and Co supervisor Dr D Vine, Food Science.
- Biochemical aspects of apple growing. Mr M Shafiq PhD student, Supervisor: Zora Singh
Completed Research Projects
- Production physiology and postharvest technology of mango in a Mediterranean climate in Western Australia. (Zora Singh)
- Regulation of pre and postharvest fruit colour development in apples. (Zora Singh)
- Mechanism of chilling injury of mango fruit - with a particular reference to polyamines and ethylene. (Zora Singh)
- Regulation of volatile aroma production in mango fruits with a particular reference to ethylene and controlled atmosphere storage. (Zora Singh)
- Role of ethylene in fruit set. (Zora Singh)
- Regulation of bud dormancy in wine grapes (Zora Singh)
