Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Harvesting Stone Fruits
Unlike apples, pears, and medlars that can be stored for months, stone fruits
generally have short storage and shelf lives — typically three weeks or less.
For long-term storage, freeze, can, or dry the fruits.
Apricots
Harvest apricots when they begin to soften and develop their characteristic
aromas. If shipping, pick the fruits when they have fully colored but are still
firm. Store the fruits at 35 to 40°F (2 to 4°C) for up to 3 weeks.
Cherries
Unlike for apples and pears, there are no objective measurements for de-
termining the harvest maturity for either sweet or tart cherries. Also unlike
apples and pears, cherries do not continue to ripen after they are harvested.
Combined with the fact that cherry fruit size and yields continue to increase
in the latter stages of ripening, most growers prefer to delay harvest until the
fruits are fully ripe. At this point, the fruits should be quite soft and flavorful.
Varieties that develop very firm fruits provide a longer harvest window
than soft-fruited varieties. Regardless, allowing for no more than a 10- to
14-day harvest is a good practice.
Ripe cherries are easily bruised and must be handled gently and cooled
quickly. Fresh-market fruits are harvested by hand. By using the training
methods and rootstocks we discussed earlier, pickers should be able to har-
vest about 80 percent or more of the fruits without using ladders. By keeping
your pickers' feet on the ground, you can greatly speed up harvest; this is
especially desirable for U-pick orchards, where customers and ladders are a
poor combination from a liability standpoint.
For commercial orchards, most tart cherries and sweet cherries destined
for processing are mechanically harvested using trunk shakers equipped
with padded grips to reduce damage to the trees.
