Perform Harvest

and Post-Harvest
Activities

Maturity Indices and Harvesting

 Types of Maturity
• Harvest/commercial Maturity- any
stage of development when a plant
meets the requirement of the
consumer.
• Physiological maturity – any stage of
maturity before the onset of
senescence
• Optimum Harvest Maturity- stage at
which some quality is sacrificed to
extend marketable life.
Maturity Indices
Attributes as guide to determine harvest maturity
Subjective Methods:
• Change in peel color
1. Visual Method • Presence of bloom
• Change in shape, size

2. Texture • Softening

• Development of
3. Aroma
characteristics aroma
 Maturity Indices
Watermelon Melon/Honeydew
• 30 to 40 days from flowering
• 30 to 40 days from flowering
• When tapped, sounds like you are
• Smell sweet, netted at the bottom of
tapping your forehead( Unripe)
• When tapped, sounds like you are the fruit
tapping your chest (ripe)
• When tapped, sounds like you are
tapping your stomach (overripe)
 Maturity Indices

Upo, Patola Ampalaya

• When it reaches desired fruit size
• Fruit skin have crack
 Maturity Indices
Papaya (for desert) Tomato
• Yellow to orange streak at the bottom of • Fruit starts to have color
the fruit

Other vegetables
• When it has reached desirable fruit size
Harvesting
The best time to harvest
vegetables is early in the
morning and late in the
afternoon. Harvest quality
vegetables for fresh market
before the fruits, flower or
leaves reach 80% maturity.
Pechay - 30-45 DAT
Lettuce – 45-55 DAT
Kangkong - 30-40 DAT
Squash – 90 DAT
Kalubay – 90 DAT
Ampalaya – 75 DAT
Patola – 76 DAT
Carrot - 90 DAT
Eggplant – 75 DAT
 Harvesting
gathering of products from the field at the right
harvest maturity, time and methods
 Harvesting time:
usually done in the morning or late in the afternoon

• Harvest maturity- right stage of maturity

• Manual harvesting
Pulling Manual harvesting Cutting

Twisting

Digging

Mechanical
harvesting
 Classifying/Sorting/
Grading of Vegetable
Products
Sorting is done to separate the good
harvest and the ugly. Grading is
done to group products into quality
class / grade according to criteria of
quality class / grade of each
commodity.
 Use Appropriate Harvesting Tools and
Materials
• The most common type of harvesting implement are

• small sickle, big sickle, darat, gandasa and small axe etc., (Fig.
9.9a, b, c & d).

• The hand sickle is used to harvest crops like wheat, maize, barley,
pulses and grass etc.

• Big sickle (Darat) is used to harvest fodder from trees.

 Use Appropriate Harvesting Tools and
Materials
• Using the right tool for a particular gardening chore makes it less
labor-intensive and more enjoyable.
• This applies to harvesting as well, where the right tool is dictated
by the type of crop you are gathering.
• Many gardening tools come in short-handled styles for small or
raised gardens, and standard long-handled ones for the big jobs.
• Caring for your tools and storing them properly at the end of the
season ensures their usefulness for years to come.
 Use Appropriate Harvesting Tools and
Materials
• Harvesting root vegetables can be tricky in tough, unyielding soil
or soil that has become compacted.

• Pulling such crops up by the leaves often rewards you with plenty
of tops but no roots.

• Digging around and below the vegetables with a trowel eases

them up more gently without damaging their outer skins, and also
allows you to replace the soil you disturbed in the process.
Diggers
and
Delvers
 Perform Harvest and
Post-Harvest Activities
• Harvesting is the process of gathering a
ripe crop from the fields.
• Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse
for harvest, typically using a scythe or
sickle.
• On smaller farms with minimal
mechanization, harvesting is the most
labor-intensive activity of the growing
season.
 There are several management practices
that can reduce or eliminate harvest injury.
• Remove protruding nails and smooth
the rough edges on field containers.

• Harvest workers should not have

long, sharp fingernails.

• Use care in dumping products from

one container to another.
 Techniques to extend postharvest shelf life:

• reducing respiration by lowering

temperature
• slow respiration by maintaining
optimal gaseous environment
• slow water loss by maintaining
optimal relative humidity
• variety selection
 Reducing Damage

• Bruise damage will cause

respiration rates and ethylene
production to increase
dramatically.

• This shortens the shelf life.

There are several management
practices that can reduce or
eliminate harvest injury.
 Reducing Damage
• Remove protruding nails or staples
and smooth the rough edges on
field containers.
• Harvest workers should not have
long, sharp fingernails.
• Use care in dumping products from
one container to another. This is
one of the most common trouble
spots.
• Use padding on all impact areas
when possible.
 Reducing Damage
• Clean sand and all debris out of all
containers.

• Don’t overfill containers! Severe

damage can result when stacked.

• Consider the time of day of harvest.

Many products are more turgid in
the early morning and bruise more
easily.
 Techniques to extend postharvest shelf life:

• Transport from field to packinghouse can be a source of injury.

• Roads should be maintained in good condition.
• Drivers should exercise care and remember that they are transporting living material.
• The springs and shock absorbers on trucks and trailers must be properly maintained.
• Dumping or unloading at the packing shed is also a trouble spot.
• Dry dumping is an option for certain produce items.
• If a wet dump is necessary, appropriate flow control out of the dumping area is
needed to minimize bruising.
 Post Harvest Activities

• include harvesting, handling,

storage, processing, packaging,
transportation and marketing.

• Occasionally, losses may be 100%,

for example when there is a price
collapse and it would cost the
farmer more to harvest and market
the produce than to plough it back
into the ground
 Post Harvest
Process
• In agriculture, postharvest
handling is the stage of crop
production immediately
following harvest, including
cooling, cleaning, sorting and
packing.
• Postharvest treatment largely
determines final quality, whether a
crop is sold for fresh consumption,
or used as an ingredient in a
processed food product.
 Factors to consider in post harvest

• The management of temperature, ventilation,

and relative humidity are

• The three most important factors that affect

postharvest quality and storage life of horticultural
produce.
 Post harvesting
Technique

winnowing, threshing,storage of
food grains are the post
harvesting techniques.24
 Post harvest
storage
Postharvest storage implies a
strict control of environmental
temperature and humidity in
the storing chamber, and it is
known that cuticle properties are
largely influenced by these two
factors (Edelmann et al., 2005;
Matas et al., 2005).
 Post harvest packaging
• It is enclosing food produce or
product to protect it from mechanical
injuries, tampering, and
contamination from physical,
chemical, and biological sources
[36].

• Packaging a postharvest handling

practice in tomato production is
essential in putting the produce into
sizeable portions for easy handling.
 Different types of Post
Harvest activities
• Post-harvest Losses of vegetables
and fruit occur at all points in the
value chain from production in the
field to the food being placed on a
plate for consumption.
• Post-harvest
activities include harvesting,
handling, storage, processing,
packaging, transportation and
marketing
ECONOMIC CLASSIFICATION OF
CROPS
• Cereal or Grain crops: Cereals
are grasses grown for their edible
seeds, the term cereal being
applied either to the grain or to
the plant itself.
• Cereals include wheat, oats,
barley, rice, maize, sorghum,
millets, etc.
 ECONOMIC CLASSIFICATION
OF CROPS

• Root and tuber crops:

These include sugar beets, carrots,
sweet potatoes, yams, cassava,
potatoes and cocoyam.
ECONOMIC CLASSIFICATION OF
CROPS
• Vegetable crops:
This group includes
potatoes, tomatoes and
onions.
 ECONOMIC CLASSIFICATION
OF CROPS

• Fiber crops:
These are grown for their fiber.
They include cotton, jute, kenaf,
hemp, ramie, and sisal.
ECONOMIC CLASSIFICATION OF
CROPS
• Sugar crops:
These are crops that are
grown for their sweet juice
from which sucrose is
extracted and crystallized.
They include sugarcane and
sugar beet.
 ECONOMIC CLASSIFICATION
OF CROPS

• Forage crops:
These are vegetable matters fresh
or preserved that are utilized as
feeds for animals. They include
grasses, legumes, crucifers, and
other cultivated crops.
ECONOMIC CLASSIFICATION OF
CROPS
• Rubber crops/latex
crops:
These crops which include
Para rubber are grown for
the milky sap or latex
which they produce.
ECONOMIC CLASSIFICATION
OF CROPS

• Beverage crops:
These crops are also sources of
stimulants. They include tea, coffee
and cocoa.
END OF SLIDE
HAPPY FARMING