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Submitted by ncshahi on Wed, 06/03/2009 - 13:40
Posted in English Agriculture Forum (Q/A)
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STORAGE CONDITIONS AND STRUCTURES FOR FRUITS AND

VEGETABLES ON FARM User login

Once a crop is harvested, it is almost impossible to improve its quality. Proper

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storage conditions- temperature and humidity-are needed to lengthen storage
life and maintain quality once the crop has been cooled to the optimum storage
temperature. Fresh fruits and vegetables need low temperatures (32 to 55°F) and
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high relative humidities (80 to 95 percent) to lower respiration and to slow
metabolic and transpiration rates.

Storage conditions: Log in

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Relative Humidity: Transpiration rates (water loss from produce) are determined
by the moisture content of the air, which is usually expressed as relative Request new password
humidity. At high relative humidity, produce maintains salable weight,
appearance, nutritional quality and flavor, while wilting, softening and juiciness
User of the week
are reduced. Low relative humidity €increase transpiration rates. A hygrometer or
a sling psychrometer, not the appearance of the produce, should be used to
monitor humidity. Control can be achieved by a variety of methods: padmavathi_dor
A User of DOR, Hyderabad,
1. Operating a humidifier in the storage area.
India
2. Regulating air movement and ventilation in relation to storage room load.
3. Maintaining refrigeration coil temperature within 2°F of the storage room
air temperature.
4. Wetting the storage room floor.

Temperature: Respiration and metabolic rates are directly related to room

temperatures within a given range. The higher the rate of respiration, the faster Her contributions to agropedia
the produce deteriorates. Lower temperatures slow respiration rates and the Other Contributors
ripening and senescence processes, which prolongs the storage life of fruits and History
vegetables. Low temperatures also slow the growth of pathogenic fungi which
cause spoilage of fruits and vegetables in storage.

Ethylene: Ethylene (C2 H4) ia an air pollutant gas wherever fruit ripening takes New Releases
place. Mature but unripe fruits are placed in well ventilated rooms and exposed
to ethylene with acetylene. Carbon dioxide and temperature over 30o C inhibit Package of Practices
ethylene action. agropedia images
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Desirable effects: Ripening, color development, degreasing, shuck loosing, Multilingual Editor
sprout induction. agrochat
Undesirable effects:Accelerates ripening, accelerates yellowing,induces leaf Video Help
loss, bitter taste in carrots, induces sprouting in potatoes.

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Storage conditions for fruits and vegetables | agropedia Page 2 of 5

Statistics
Measures to control effects of Ethylene:

Registered Users: 4471

Eliminate sources of ethylene
Last Registered User: Patoor

Ventilation one air charge per hour Munirathnam

Inhibiting ethylene effects by CAS-low oxygen or high carbon dioxide

No. of pages: 8512

Chemical removal-activated charcoal, potassium permanganate, UV lamps,etc.
Freezing Injury: Freezing will occur in all commodities below 32°F. Produce that
is likely to be injured by one freezing is classified as "most susceptible."
The "moderately susceptible" produce will recover from one or two freezings.
Produce which is "least susceptible" can survive several freezings without injury.
Injury from freezing temperatures can appear in plant tissues as loss of rigidity,
softening and water soaking. Injury can be reduced if the produce is allowed to
warm up slowly to optimum storage temperatures, and if it is not handled during
the thawing period.

Chilling Injury: Fruits and vegetables that require warmer storage temperatures
(40 to 55°F) can be damaged if they are subjected to nearfreezing temperatures
(32°F). Cooler temperatures interfere with normal metabolic processes. Injury
symptoms are varied and often do not develop until the produce has been
returned to warmer temperatures for several days.

Objectives of on-farm storage of fruits and vegetables:

These are perishables

Face marketing challenges

Distance from major production to consumption

Product quality for longer life

High economic returns

Successful marketing

SOME STORAGE STRUCTURES:

Storage of fruits and vegetables at home

Cold storage

Controlled atmosphere storage

Plastic shallow storage

Perforated plastic shallow
Storing Vegetables and Fruits at Home: Many vegetables and fruits can be
stored in pits, cellars or basements without refrigeration during cool fall and cold
winter months.

Outdoor Storage: Produce that requires cool-to-cold moist surroundings can be

stored outdoors. A well-drained location is essential to prevent excessive
accumulation of water. Insulating materials commonly used are straw, hay, dry
leaves, corn stalks, or wood shavings, and some soil.

In-Garden Storage: It is possible to leave some root crops, such as carrots,

turnips, and parsnips in the garden where they grew, for part or all of the winter.
After the ground begins to freeze in the late fall, cover the root crops with a foot
or more of mulch straw, hay, or dry leaves. Do not place mulch on warm soil
because doing so will cause vegetables to decay rapidly. Wait until the ground is
cold.€

Mounds, Pits: Mounds or pits are a very economical way to store cabbage and
root crops, such as carrots, beets, celeriac, kohlrabi, rutabagas, turnips, and
winter radishes.€€

Buried Containers: A 20-gallon trash can, buried in the ground, makes a

convenient and economical storage for many kinds of vegetables. The container
must be free of substances that might give off-flavor to the produce. Never use
drums or containers that might have held pesticides or other chemicals.€€€€€€€€€€€€

Indoor Storage Area: There are many areas in dwellings that naturally provide,
or can be adapted to provide a variety of temperature and moisture conditions
for storage. These include the attic, unheated rooms, the basement, or cellar.
They can provide cool, moderately moist conditions and can be used to store
some types of apples or a variety of root crops. A warm storage area, such as an
attic, can be a good environment in the fall for drying herbs, beans, walnuts, or
hickory nuts.

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Basement: A well-ventilated basement with central heating is generally dry and

has a temperature range of 50˚F to 60˚F. It may be used for ripening tomatoes
and for short-term storage of pumpkins, winter squash, potatoes, sweet
potatoes, and onions.

Basement Storage Room: For long-term storage over winter you will need to
partition off a room and insulate it to control temperature and moisture. Build a
storage room on the north or east side of the basement, if practicable, and make
sure there are no heating ducts or pipes running through it. You will need at least
one window for cooling and ventilating the room.

Managing a storage area:

Sanitation: At least once a year, remove all containers from the storage area and
clean and air them in the sun. The room itself should also be thoroughly aired,
cleaned and washed down with a disinfectant, such as diluted chlorine bleach (1
cup bleach mixed with 9 cups water), to kill off any molds or bacteria that could
lie dormant and ruin future crops.

Handling Vegetables and Fruits: Vegetables and fruits that are to be stored
should be handled carefully to prevent damage. €Protruding wire staples in
baskets and hampers are particularly damaging. Lightweight tub buckets and
plastic-coated stave baskets (egg baskets) are good containers for harvesting. If
the soil is sandy, rinse the containers frequently to reduce skin breaks. Standard
apple boxes and lug boxes used for shipping tomatoes, grapes, and nectarines are
good storage containers.

Cold Storage of Fruit and Vegetables: Cold storage reduces the rate of
biochemical changes in fresh foods (known as 'respiration' and 'senescence') and
also slows down the growth of contaminating micro-organisms. The reason for
storing fruits and vegetables in a cold store is therefore to extend their life
beyond the harvest season. Some of the factors that control the shelf life of fresh
crops in cold storage include:
* The type of food and variety.
* The temperature during harvest.
* The composition of the storage atmosphere.

Preparation of crops for cold storage: Most crops are likely to contain
contaminants, to have parts that are inedible, or to have variable shape or size. To
ensure that foods have a uniformly high quality for sale in the fresh market sector, it
is necessary to clean, sort and grade the crop before cooling and cold storage.

Harvesting and cleaning: Cut or bruised produce is susceptible to post-harvest

infection and has a much shorter storage life and poor appearance after storage.
Crops should be harvested carefully using a sharp stainless steel blade and should
not be placed on the ground where they could pick up dirt.

Construction and operation of a cold store:

€Most cold stores are now constructed from prefabricated panels that have:
* structural steel or concrete to give them strength
* insulation (fibrous material such as rock wool or cellular plastics such as
polyisocyanurate)
* a vapour barrier to prevent movement of water vapour, and
* an outer and inner facing material that is bonded to the core.

Packing systems: A packing system is required in the store so that produce can
be loaded and unloaded easily and safely. This system can involve stacked crates
or a more complicated system using racks and trays.

Temperature at storage: Cold stores are cooled by circulation of cold air

produced by refrigeration units. All cold stores should lower the temperature of
crops as quickly as possible through the 'warm zone' (50 -> 10°C) where maximum
growth of micro-organisms occurs

Humidity of storage: There is always some moisture loss from fruits and
vegetables during cold storage but excessive moisture loss is a problem. It is
prevented by keeping the humidity of air in the store above 85%.

Controlled Atmosphere Storage: Controlled atmosphere (CA) storage involves

altering and maintaining an atmospheric composition that is different from air
composition (about 78% N2, 21% O2, and 0.03% CO2); generally, O 2 below 8% and

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Storage conditions for fruits and vegetables | agropedia Page 4 of 5

CO2 above 1% are used.

Some Beneficial Effects of CA (optimum composition for the commodity):

i. Retardation of senescence (including ripening) and associated biochemical

and physiological changes, ie., slowing down rates of respiration, ethylene
production, softening, and compositional changes.

ii. Reduction of sensitivity to ethylene action at O2 levels < 8% and/or CO2
levels > 1%.

iii. Alleviation of certain physiological disorders such as chilling injury of
avocado and some storage disorders, including scald, of apples.
Detrimental Effects of CA (above or below optimum composition for the
commodity):

i. Initiation and/or aggravation of certain physiological disorders such as

internal browning in apples and pears, brown stain of lettuce, and chilling
injury of some commodities.

ii. Irregular ripening of fruits, such as banana, mango, pear, and tomato, can
result from exposure to O2 levels below 2% and/or CO2 levels above 5% for > 1
mo.
Commercial Application of CA Storage: Several refinements in CA storage have
been made in recent years to improve quality maintenance; these include
creating nitrogen by separation from compressed air using molecular sieve beds
or membrane systems, low O2 (1.0 to 1.5%) storage, low ethylene (< 1 µL L-1) CA
storage; rapid CA (rapid establishment of optimal levels of O2 and CO2, and
programmed (or sequential) CA storage, eg., storage in 1% O2 for 2 to 6 weeks
followed by storage in 2 to 3% O2 for the remainder of the storage period.

€Editted and formatted by: Shweta Singh

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Login or register to post comments 2665 reads

Great post but i have

Submitted by llerites12 on Mon, 08/16/2010 - 07:31.

Great post but i have listened that the fruits will loose their calories if they kept in a cold
place is it true?

Growing Watermelon

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Post harvesting and fruits quality

Submitted by Rakesh Kumar Singh on Mon, 08/16/2010 - 10:34.

Actually fruits and vegetable are live materials. After detaching them from
plants these are depends on own stored food materials for energy
requirement. Energy is required for some necessary biological activities like
respiration. By lowering the temperature we slow down the respiration process
so harvested fruits and vegetable can survive for long time without losing their
turgidity and freshness. In fact we can not stop the loss of calories after
harvesting the fruits but we can lower down the loss by storing them in cold
storage.

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I am Growing Pineapple Plants

Submitted by rrenesom756 on Mon, 08/23/2010 - 20:11.

I am Growing Pineapple Plants Can you plz post some instructions of it?

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