Harvesting

This is the most important operation in strawberry production. Fruit becomes quickly over-ripe and once picking gets behind, subsequent harvesting is made more difficult as rotting and over-ripe berries slow down picking of the rest of the crop. Supervision is important, particularly where children are used to pick the crop. This supervisor should allocate pickers to particular rows, ensure that the rows are picked cleanly before allowing the picker to move on to another row. They must also ensure that the picker does not damage either the plants or the unripe fruit.

The berries should be picked by nipping off the stalk and not holding the fruit. As the fruit is soft, it bruises very readily and the bruising shows up within a few hours of picking, spoils the appearance and reduces shelf life of the fruit.

Pickers should grade the fruit as they pick, ensuring that all fruit in the punnets is of an acceptable grade for the market for which it is intended. Unmarketable fruit should be picked into separate containers and removed from the beds.

When strawberries are picked on a sunny day in July, field heat of the berry can be up to 30°C. To reduce the temperature, the berries should be picked early in the morning and immediately placed in cool shade or a cold store.

Where fruit has to be picked during the heat of the day, it should be moved as soon as possible into cool conditions. Where a cold store is available the fruit should be put in as quickly as possible and cooled to 4°C within six hours of picking.