Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 29.1.
Photographs of acerola (A), cashew apple (B), cherimoya (C), and pitanga (D) fruits. For color
detail, please see color plate section.
In more recent years, concomitant with commercial produc-
tion and processing of the fruits, improved varieties have
been developed and cultivated.
The fruits are harvested by hand; this should be ideally
done daily or at least every other day because the plants
have flowers and fruits at different stages of maturation
(Bleinroth et al., 1996). If harvesting is done at longer
intervals, loss of fruits that fall to the ground and become
unfit for marketing and processing is considerable.
Harvesting should be done during cooler hours of the
day to avoid intense heat. The harvested fruit should not
be exposed to sunlight. The fruit when fully ripe is very
delicate and should be handled with great care. The thin
skin can be easily ruptured, and the pulp immediately starts
to ferment. The acerola fruit has intense metabolic activity
and ripening occurs within a short period (Alves, 1996).
Acerola from Barbados was found to be climacteric with
a very high peak respiratory rate, consistent with its high
perishability, but with a low rate of ethylene production
(Carrington and King, 2002).
Harvesting and postharvest handling
Acerola plants propagated from seeds begin to produce fruit
2 to 2.5 years after planting, while those from cuttings start
production after 1 to 1.5 years (Alves et al., 1995; Silva,
1996). Development of the fruit requires only 3 weeks be-
tween anthesis and ripening. The harvest season occurs
three to four times a year; in Puerto Rico, up to seven sea-
sons per year had been reported. In some areas of northern
Brazil with high temperature, sunlight, and irrigation, fruit-
ing from plants propagated from seeds or cuttings begins
in less than a year, and the production occurs practically
throughout the year.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search