Clever Tips for Storing Fresh Peaches, Easily Extending the Supply Period

There are many peach varieties. With different early-, mid- and late-maturing periods and cultivation methods, they are supplied to the market successively from April to October. Fresh peaches have a short storage life and are prone to rotting and spoilage. If appropriate fresh-keeping methods are adopted, the fresh peach supply period can be extended and economic benefits increased.

Bruise-free harvesting, grading and packaging. To judge peach fruit maturity: first, after the fruit has fully developed, the skin begins to lose its green color, the flesh is slightly firm, and colored varieties have basically reached full color, this is the firm-ripe stage. Second, when the fruit's ground color is green or light green, the fuzz on the fruit surface begins to decrease, the flesh is slightly firm, and the sun-facing side of colored varieties begins to color, this is the seven- to eight-tenths ripe stage. Fruit at the firm-ripe stage and the seven- to eight-tenths ripe stage is more tolerant of storage and long-distance transport. Because peaches do not ripen uniformly, most varieties need to be harvested 2-3 times. During harvesting, it is essential to strictly prevent bruising, compression damage and puncture wounds, and to pick the fruit with the stem attached. Harvesting at low temperatures in the morning is best; handle the fruit immediately after picking, remove damaged, injured, inferior, deformed and dirty fruit, and grade by size and pack separately. Commonly used packaging containers hold 5 kg-10 kg, lined with paper or polystyrene foam paper; high-grade fruit is packed individually with foam net sleeves, or packed in a single layer in shallow fruit trays. During picking and handling, be sure to handle gently, load and unload gently, and prevent bruising and compression damage.

Fresh-keeping treatment to prevent rot diseases. During storage, peaches are prone to brown rot, soft rot, and blue and green mold diseases. Sec-butylamine series preservative fresh-keeping agents can be used to kill Penicillium and Aspergillus, etc. Commonly used ones include a 15-fold dilution of carbendazim (fruit washing), and a mixed solution of 100 mg/kg-200 mg/kg benomyl and 450 mg/kg-900 mg/kg dichloro-4-nitroaniline (dcna) (fruit dipping). When washing or dipping fruit with the above agents, use clean water to prepare the solution, and after dipping, wait for the water on the fruit surface to evaporate completely before packaging.

Choose a good environment and control temperature for storage. The suitable temperature for storing peach fruit is 0°C-3°C. For mid- and early-maturing varieties, the temperature should be slightly higher; for example, the storage temperature for Baihua and Honghua honey peaches is 1°C-2°C, and the cold storage temperature for Dongxue honey peach, Zhonghua longevity peach and winter peach is 0.5°C-1°C. Because peach fruit is relatively sensitive to low temperatures, long storage at 0°C can easily cause chilling injury. To prevent or reduce the occurrence of chilling injury, facilities with high temperature-control precision are needed, or the intermittent warming cold storage method can be used, that is, the fruit is first stored at 0°C for 1 week-4 weeks, then warmed to 18°C-20°C for two days, then cooled again to 0°C for storage. Choosing a wall-mounted automatic cold storage room with a temperature-control precision of 0.1°C, fast cooling speed and uniform storage temperature, with cooling and warming automatically adjusted as needed, can effectively reduce and avoid the occurrence of chilling injury.

When storing peaches, the suitable oxygen concentration is 1%-3%, and the carbon dioxide concentration is 4%-5%. When storing peaches in physiological small packaging bags, the carbon dioxide concentration should be lower than 8%, and the oxygen 5%-14%. After putting them into storage, check regularly. For short-term stored peach fruit, observe once a day; for medium- and long-term fruit, check once every 3 days-5 days.