Harvesting and packing

The proper time to remove a fruit from the tree or plant varies with each fruit and is governed by whether the product will be sold and consumed within hours, or stored for weeks, months, or even a year. Most fruits are harvested as close as possible to the time they are eaten. A few, of which banana and pear are outstanding examples, may be harvested while immature and still ripen satisfactorily. Orange, grapefruit, and some varieties of avocado may be “stored” on the tree for several months after they have attained good quality; this method cuts costs in handling and marketing.

Many fruits, including apple, pear, orange, lemon, and grapefruit, may drop from the tree during the last part of the maturation period. Preharvest drop of these fruits can be delayed by application of dilute sprays of growth-regulating substances like naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). The chemical spray Alar [N-(dimethylamino) succinamic acid] applied four to six weeks after bloom on apple not only reduces fruit drop at harvest but increases red colour, firmness, and return bloom the next year, in addition to other advantages.

For the fresh market, most tree and bush fruits are still harvested by hand. For processing, drying, and occasionally for fresh market, mechanical motor-driven tree and bush shakers with appropriate catching belts, bins, pallets, and electric lifts reduce harvesting and handling labour. In years to come, machinery may make it possible to machine-harvest most fruits, with no more, and possibly less, damage than with hand picking.

The public has become increasingly particular about the appearance and quality of the product it buys. Hence, store managers and suppliers seek the best grades of fruits and nuts available, and growers make every effort to produce crops with attractive colour and smooth finish. Fruits are packed by government-controlled grades such as Fancy or Extra Fancy within given size limits and are so labelled on the carton or box, together with the source. Most fruits and nuts not meeting this standard of quality are processed or sent through channels using the lower grades and off sizes.

Small packages of plastic foam or wood pulp base holding four to six fruits covered and heat sealed with polyethylene plastic film are popular. These are delivered to stores in corrugated cartons holding a few dozen packages. Citrus, apples, and whole nuts or kernels also are packaged in polyethylene bags and delivered in cartons. Loose fruit may be sold in cell cartons and tray packs consisting of stacked form-fitting pulp trays in a “bushel size” box. Every effort is made to eliminate bruising.

Large truck-pulled containers with individually motor-driven refrigeration units, with or without controlled atmosphere (CO₂-O₂, to retard ripening), are loaded at the fruit source and trucked to their destination or are loaded on ships by derrick for overseas shipment. These sealed containers are also being used increasingly for bananas to reduce labour and handling and to deliver the product in better condition.

Air shipment of “vine- and tree-ripe” fruit (strawberries, figs, sweet cherries, pineapples, avocados) to distances as far as from California to Europe in a day or less is becoming increasingly common with the much larger and faster cargo planes and reduced air-freight prices.

Postharvest physiology of fruits

Fruit ripening is a form of senescence and signifies the final stage in fruit development. A fleshy fruit is the enlarged ovary of a flower (avocado) or additional floral parts such as in apple, pear, and pineapple. Usually fertilization, and sometimes pollination alone, stimulate the floral parts causing a rapid cell division that leads to differentiation and the formation of the fruit structure. During this stage fruits consist of small, young cells filled with protoplasm. When the young fruit has been stimulated, presumably by plant hormones that originate from the embryonic seeds, rapid cell expansion takes place. During this stage fruits gain rapidly in size and weight. The cells develop small cavities or spaces in their tissue (become vacuolated) and begin the process of foodstuff accumulation, which lends fruits their compositional diversity. Banana, apple, and date, for example, accumulate mainly carbohydrates. Avocado and olive store fatty materials. Important constituents of most fruits are organic acids such as malic acid, found in apple and pear; citric acid, found in citrus fruits and pineapple; and tartaric acid, found in grapes. Fruits are usually low in protein.

After cell expansion has slowed and become nominal, fruits enter the stage of maturity and undergo preparation for ripening. Some crops, such as pear and avocado, are harvested at the so-called mature-green state and allowed to ripen afterward. Most fruits are at a stage of incipient ripening before they are picked. Ripening is marked by rapid and dramatic changes that give fruits their attractive and edible character. Some of the familiar changes are softening, which results from degradation of cell wall substances; disappearance of a green background, because of chlorophyll degradation (as in pear, apple, and banana); appearance of coloured pigments such as the carotenoids—orange-yellow—and anthocyanins—red (as in orange, mango, and strawberry); a decrease in acidity and increase in the sugar content (orange, apple); and emission of the volatile substances that give many fruits their distinct aroma (as in banana, pear, and apple). In climacteric fruits (e.g., banana, pear, apple), ripening is accompanied by increased respiration. In nonclimacteric fruit (e.g., strawberry, cherry) this phenomenon does not occur.

It is thought that the transition from the mature to the ripe stage is brought about by certain “ripening” enzymes. Protein molecules act as catalysts. The activity of these enzymes leads first to various ripening reactions, and then to gradual deterioration of the fruit tissue.

Because ripening leads to tissue breakdown, fruits are considered a highly perishable commodity. Different fruits have varying degrees of postharvest longevity. While strawberries last only a week to 10 days, for example, apples or lemons can be stored successfully for as long as several months.

Postharvest life of fruits can be extended by refrigeration with or without a modified oxygen–carbon dioxide atmosphere. Most temperate-zone fruits can be held safely at 32 to 41 °F (0 to 5 °C), but many subtropical and tropical fruits, including lemon, avocado, banana, and mango, show signs of injury from being chilled in prolonged cold storage and consequently fail to ripen properly. Bananas do not tolerate temperatures below 53 °F (12 °C), while several avocado varieties can be stored at temperatures as low as 46 °F (8 °C).

Fruit life can be extended further by both refrigeration and controlled atmosphere (CA) storage in which oxygen is kept at about 5 percent and carbon dioxide at 1 to 3 percent, while temperature is held at a level best suited to the particular fruit. So-called CA storage is common today for apples and pears and is being adapted to other fruits. Controlled atmosphere and refrigeration in conjunction with the removal of ethylene gas (which emanates from fruits and speeds ripening) helps slow the ripening process considerably. Golden Delicious apples and some pears are shipped in polyethylene containers in which a desirable, modified atmosphere is created by the respiring fruit.

Drying is a standard practice for stabilizing the market movement of dates, figs, raisin grapes, prunes, and apricots. Canning is of paramount importance to the pineapple, peach, and pear industries (these fruits can be dried as well), and freezing is a means of stabilizing some of the most perishable fruits, including strawberry, raspberry, and blueberry.

Nuts are susceptible to mold, souring, staleness, discoloration, and rancidity. Cured and dried nuts are kept in prolonged cold storage under controlled temperature and humidity levels. Nuts also are stored and sold in vacuum packs of carbon dioxide-enriched atmosphere.

Waste materials, other uses

Apple wood is excellent for fireplace use, and cherry and certain other fruit woods are used for the finest household furniture. The dried residue from processing apples and citrus is made into feed for conditioning livestock for market, as are waste materials from many processed fruits. Apple pomace (waste material) is spread on the orchard floor with a manure spreader to help in soil conditioning and as a source of minerals.

Nutshells have many uses. Filbert shells are made into plywood, artificial wood, and linoleum; a mixture of shells with powdered coal and lignite makes cinder blocks; shells are used in making poisonous gases and gas masks, and as fuel and mulch. Cashew shell liquid, a skin irritant, is made into resins for varnishes; kills mosquito larvae; can be impregnated in wood as a varnish to preserve against insect attack; is used in automotive brake linings and clutch facings; is used as a laminating agent for paper, cloth, and glass fibres; and is used to treat cement floors and synthetic rubber to retard deterioration. Finely ground black-walnut-shell flour is used in plastic molding powder; as a glue extender; to prevent overheating of drills; to “sand”-blast jet engines; for polishing, burnishing, and deburring metal parts; for cleaning foundry molds; and to spray on tires for better traction. Pecan shells are used in place of gravel in cement walks and driveways; as fuel; as mulch and as a soil conditioner; in livestock bedding; as filler for fertilizers, feeds, etc.; in the manufacture of tanning agents, with charcoal and abrasives in hand soap; as a filler in plastic and veneer wood; and many of the same uses as black walnut shells. Some nutshells are made into beads, marbles, buttons, carving tools, ink, and ornament. The India clearing nut is cut open and rubbed on the inside of earthenware that will contain drinking water; the juice coagulates the water impurities which sink to the bottom. The nuts of the betel palm in the Far East and of the kola tree in West Africa are chewed for their stimulatory effects.