Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/64944
Cherries Delayed harvest can lead to more problems with pitting and pebbling of cherries. in storage—we've shown that time and time again. Partic- ularly with the Summerland cultivars, if you leave them in storage for a week or two, they get much firmer. That's why the firmness problems disappear. If you're having problems at the beginning of storage, it's not like a hot potato. You may want to think of holding on to them for a week or so instead of trying to get them to the customer right away—as long as you keep them in cold storage." Toivonen said the reason for the increase in firmness is not understood. He's found that there tend to be more problems with soft cherries in orchards where the fruit has lower Brix levels. Sugar levels can be increased by improving light penetration to the fruit on the trees. Maturity Harvesting at the right maturity is critical for the best quality fruit, Toivonen stressed. More mature fruit is sweeter and has better flavor because of both higher sugar and acid levels. Growers can improve flavor by delaying harvest. However, delaying harvest too long can have negative effects, such as increasing pebbling and pitting of the fruit. If the cherries are left on the tree until they are dark mahogany color, there can be stem browning and the fruit can lose flavor as the acid level drops. "It's a bit of a balancing act getting them at the correct maturity—trying to get the quality and flavor into the fruit but not allow the fruit to get so old it's starting to degrade on you," Toivonen said, recommending that a good com- promise is to harvest at stage 5 on the chart of the Ctfil (Centre Technique Interprofessional des Fruits et Légumes). Injury A significant amount of impact and compression injury can occur during harvest, he said, urging growers to pay attention to how their workers are harvesting the fruit. "There has to be a lot more effort and training in managing pickers and getting fruit to the packing house without damage." Corrugated plastic containers that are more flexible than buckets can help reduce impact injury that leads to bruising and pitting. Foam pads placed in the bottom of plastic kidney buckets or metal pails can help break the force as the cherries are dropped into them. Cherries can be damaged when they are dropped from a height of more than 8 inches, so if pickers are dropping the fruit from above the top of the picking container, that's a prob- lem. It's easy to hear the distinctive sound of cherries being dropped from too great a height into the contain- ers, he said, and he recommended that growers go www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER MAY 15, 2012 13 Courtesy of Peter toivonen, agriCulture and agri-food Canada