FRUIT MATURITY AT HARVEST

In tropical and subtropical countries, the development of the fruit is affected by the temperature. Maturity of the rind and maturity of the flesh of the fruit are not synchronized. The fruit is edible even when the rind still remains green.

Mature fruit vary in size, even those on the same tree With sweet oranges such as Valencia or Liucheng, harvesting should begin with the smaller fruit which mature first.

With mandarins such as Ponkan, it is the end of the fruit furthest from the stem which turns yellow first. Harvesting should begin with the large fruit. Smaller fruit, or those which are slow to turn color, should be harvested later on in the season.

TIME OF DAY FOR HARVEST

It is best to harvest citrus on a clear, sunny day with low humidity. The fruit should be harvested as soon as the dew has evaporated. On a cloudy day, the fruit should be harvested in the afternoon. Fruit should not be harvested at all on a rainy day.

HARVESTING METHOD

To prevent physical damage to the fruit, the worker should trim his/her fingernails, wear gloves, and use special harvesting scissors with rounded ends to cut the fruit. To harvest the fruit, it should be held in one hand, and the other hand used to cut the fruit stem together with a few leaves . Then the fruit is brought close to the chest and the rest of the stem is cut off smoothly, close to the fruit.

CONTAINERS USED FOR HARVESTING

The container used for newly harvested fruit should be solid, with good ventilation Fruit in flexible containers tend to crush each other, causing bruises. The bottom of wood or bamboo containers should be lined with newspapers, a paper bag or a fertilizer sack. It is important to move containers as little as possible, and not to leave them standing in the sun

GRADING AND STORABILITY

Citrus are graded by size. This can be done by hand or by machine. If the grower is grading citrus manually, it is best not to judge the size only by eye, but to use some kind of measuring device. A simple way to check fruit size is to cut a series of round holes in a thin wooden board or a piece of thick cardboard, according to standard market sizes for that variety (Fig. 6). A revolving drum type machine is often used by farmers in Taiwan. Other low-cost grading machines are also available.

Fruit of different sizes should not be mixed together, or the market price the grower gets may be only that of the smallest fruit.

The optimum size for fruit varies from one variety to another. Generally, large fruit fetch the highest price. However, in the case of mandarins such as Ponkan, large fruit (8.5 cm in diameter) and extra large fruit (9.0 cm in diameter) have a low level of total soluble solids and low acid content. They have a thick peel and little juice, and do not store well. They should be consumed soon after harvest.

Medium sized (8.0 cm in diameter) and small-sized (7.5 cm in diameter) Ponkan fruit have a higher level of total soluble solids and a higher acid content, so that the flavor improves after short-term storage.

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