Detailed Explanation of Key Points for Waxberry Harvesting and Storage Techniques

Waxberry is a fruit with relatively high nutritional content and added value. At room temperature, ripe fruit begins to rot 2-4 days after harvest. Throughout the entire industry chain, “preservation” has always been the weakest link. Below, we share waxberry harvesting and storage techniques.

I. Waxberry Harvesting Techniques

1. Reasonable Crop Load

Carry out reasonable fruit thinning according to the condition of the waxberry fruiting branches. Generally, long fruiting branches retain 2 fruits, medium fruiting branches retain 1-2 fruits, short fruiting branches retain 1 fruit, and thin weak branches retain no fruit. On average, each fruiting branch retains 1-2 fruits to ensure a suitable fruit load.

2. Plant Growth Regulators to Prevent Fruit Drop

30-15 days before harvest, spray “Guoguang Beijia” on the leaves 1-2 times, with an interval of 15 days each time, to inhibit abscisic acid formation and effectively reduce fruit drop.

3. Pest and Disease Control

During the waxberry ripening period, focus on controlling waxberry white rot and fruit flies.

(1) White rot

Imazalil, azoxystrobin, pyraclostrobin, and other agents can be used for control. Note that application should stop 15 days before harvest.

(2) Fruit flies

① Chemical control: Optional agents include abamectin, spinetoram, etc., to kill fruit flies.

② Net covering for insect prevention: Cover the whole tree with insect-proof netting 40 days before harvest to prevent fruit flies.

③ Trapping and killing fruit flies: Yellow sticky boards, sugar-vinegar liquid traps, etc., can be used.

4. Picking Methods

(1) Harvest in a timely manner in batches, picking the black ones and leaving the red ones, to improve fruit quality, reduce tree consumption, and help restore tree vigor.

(2) Wear soft-soled shoes when climbing the tree to pick, to avoid damaging the bark and causing disease.

5. Orchard Sanitation

(1) Physical measures: Remove dead branches, fallen leaves, diseased and residual plant material, etc., from the orchard and take them outside the orchard for centralized burning or deep burial.

(2) Chemical measures: Spray the whole orchard with “Guoguang Octylamine Acetate + Duqiang” for sterilization and insect killing.

II. Waxberry Storage Techniques

1. Foam Box with Ice Preservation

The entire process requires careful operation, rapid movement, and gentle handling. From fruit picking to loading onto the vehicle, it must be completed within 4-6 hours. However, it very easily causes the fruit to suffer carbon dioxide injury and develop an off-flavor.

2. Quick-Freezing Storage

Because the sac-like bodies of the edible portion of waxberry are elastic and the top of the free end has many stomata, waxberry easily maintains an intact structure during thawing, so the quick-freezing preservation method can be used. Although it can maintain the original appearance and degree of freshness, the nutritional value of waxberry after quick-freezing storage cannot compare with its nutritional value in the fresh state.

3. Chemical Preservation

In recent years, using edible coating preservatives to preserve fruits and vegetables has been one of the hot topics in postharvest preservation research. Chitosan is a type of amino polysaccharide biopolymer with a structure similar to cellulose. A solution of a certain concentration can form a thin film on the fruit surface, which can greatly reduce indicators such as the rotting rate, weight loss rate, and respiration intensity of wild waxberry fruit, and delay the degradation of phenolic indicators such as anthocyanins and flavonoids. However, the coating efficiency is low, it is difficult to dry, and the film has problems such as poor strength. In addition, research, development, and application of chitosan composite films are not yet in-depth enough, making it difficult to apply them on a large scale.

4. Radiation Preservation

The principle of radiation preservation is to interfere with the basic metabolism of fruits and vegetables through ionizing radiation, delay ripening and senescence, change fruit and vegetable quality, and reduce fruit and vegetable rot losses caused by pests and microorganisms. At present, radiation preservation of waxberry in China is mostly still at the research stage and has basically not yet been applied in actual production.

5. Controlled Atmosphere Preservation

Appropriate temperature can reduce the respiration intensity of the fruit and effectively inhibit polyphenol oxidase activity and microbial activity. However, the requirements are strict, and the cost is very high, making it difficult to adapt to small and medium-sized producers.