Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
fruit, placing straw around the fruit and the use of plastic or paper wrappings
(Fig. 4.7d).
Rain shelters are sometimes constructed to protect a fruit crop from
incessant light rain showers (Fig 4.7e). This can be seen when grapes are
grown in the tropics and mango in Okinawa, to protect the fruit from disease
and for pollination, respectively.
To harvest high-quality, blemish-free fruit, bagging when the fruits
are young is often practised (Fig. 4.7d). Often the fruits are sprayed with a
fungicide, thinned and the remaining selected fruits bagged. The thinning
allows a grower to ensure that each remaining fruit has sui cient leaves on
the stem for fruit growth and development. Though there is a cost associated
with this bagging operation, the harvested fruits are blemish free, without
disease and insect damage, and more than 90% are marketable. For fruits
that are not bagged, 50-70% of the harvested fruit maybe marketable and a
smaller percentage will be of the highest grade. Another advantage of bagging
is that it evens out labour needs by moving some of labour requirements from
harvesting to thinning and bagging and thereby of ers more continuous work
for good workers whom you wish to retain.
FURTHER READING
Chandler, W.H. (1958)
Evergreen Orchards
. Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia, Pennsyl-
vania.
Coronel, R.E. (1983)
Promising Fruits of the Philippines
. College of Agriculture, University
of the Philippines at Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines.
Morton, J.F. (1987)
Fruits of Warm Climates
. J. Morton, Miami, Florida.
Popenoe, W. (1974)
Manual of Tropical and Subtropical Fruits
. Facsimile of the original
1920 edition, Hafner Press, New York.
Samson, J.A. (1986)
Tropical Fruits
, 2nd edition. Longman, New York.
