How to Harvest Citrus Scientifically? Detailed Explanation of Key Technical Points
The step of fruit harvesting is often easily overlooked, with people thinking that as long as the fruit is picked it is fine, so harvesting is often done roughly, causing improper harvesting of fruit and resulting in economic losses. For this reason, when picking fruit, attention must be paid to implementing harvesting techniques and harvesting scientifically, so as to solve the economic losses caused by improper harvesting.
1. Harvest at the right time: When the fruit reaches its inherent color, the sugar content and soluble solids content in its juice increase, the acid content decreases, and the juice also increases accordingly. At this time the flesh tissue softens and produces a fragrant aroma, and thus the fruit has reached the harvesting standard of full maturity. Because of differences in climate, soil, variety and agricultural measures in different places, the harvesting period also varies, so one should observe color and check flavor, and manage flexibly.
2. Precautions during harvesting:
(1) On the day of harvesting, if there is rain, manure water or fog, wait until there is no water on the trees before picking.
(2) Pickers must trim their nails evenly or wear gloves to avoid damaging the fruit.
(3) Do not casually climb branches and pull fruit, because pulling fruit easily causes the fruit to rot from the stem end.
(4) Strictly apply the two-cut method.
(5) Soft material must be placed inside the fruit basket to prevent damage to the fruit.
(6) The order of cutting fruit: first lower, then upper; first outside, then inside.
(7) Handle gently and place gently; fallen fruit and damaged fruit should be sorted out.
(8) Chemical treatment should be carried out promptly.
3. Chemical treatment:
① Use 2.4-D 150-250 ppm + carbendazim 200-250 ppm to wash the fruit, but in recent years various new types of preservatives have emerged one after another, and those available for selection include: Green Nanfang preservative, Sichuan Lanyue preservative, and Baoxian Liguo, Jianyang Guoguang preservative, etc. For the concentration to use, please refer to the instructions on the packaging.
② Use citrus fresh-keeping bags for single-fruit graded packaging, and after treatment with the above chemicals, the dried fruit can be put into bags as soon as possible, so that the fresh-keeping effect is more remarkable.