Harvesting is one of the important operations, that decide the quality as well as storage life of produce and helps in preventing huge losses of fruits. Harvesting of fruits should be done at optimum stage of maturity. During harvesting operation, a high standard of field hygiene should be maintained. It should be done carefully at proper time without damaging the fruits. The harvesting operation includes.
i) Identification and judging the maturity of fruits.
ii) Selection of mature fruits.
iii) Detaching or separating of the fruits from tree, and
iv) Collection of matured fruits.
Method of Harvesting:
Different kinds of fruit and vegetables require different methods after harvesting. The methods of harvesting are:
1. Manual Harvesting
2. Mechanical Harvesting
1. Manual Harvesting:
Harvesting by one’s own hand is called manual harvesting. It is done in several ways:
a. Ladder / bag picking method
b. Poles/ Clippers method
c. Harvesting by means of cutting knives
d. Harvesting by means of digging tools.
2. Mechanical Harvesting:
In this method numbers of mechanical devices are used for harvesting the produce on commercial scale.
Original Article Here
