Freshly harvested apple fruits of cultivar Starking Delicious were subjected to different treatment combinations. Then, the fruits were stored under ambient conditions, refrigerated storage and controlled atmosphere (CA) storage for six months and further analyzed for physico-chemical parameters such as fruit firmness, total soluble solids, titratable acidity, total sugars and total phenols. Among different treatment combinations, hydrocooling of harvested fruits with ice water + CaCl2 along with dipping in B. subtilis inoculum, using neem oil (1%) as surface coating and then placing them on botanical formulation (BF) impregnated fruit trays (treatment combination T7) prior to storage was most effective in retaining better physico-chemical characteristics. Among three different types of storages, CA storage was most effective in retaining physico-chemical parameters of variously treated fruits.

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