Harvesting, grading and packing of kinnow

摘要

KINNOW is the majorfruit of Punjab and it constitutes about 46 percent of the total production of the fruit in the state, it is transported to distant domestic markets and also has good export potential. To avoid losses and fetch good price in distantmarkets, good production and handling practices should be followed. The farmers who adopt these practices, are earning about Rs. one lakh per acre of crop. Good quality fruit should be whole, firm well formed and normally developed to display satisfactory ripeness. Fruit should be sound, clean, free from damage and visible mould. Its colour should be golden yellow. Though it has been grown for long time in the state, still the producers and harvesters are not familiar with the proper stage and technique of harvesting. Normally, its harvesting is started when the fruit attains full size and starts turning yellow. The fruits harvested at the early stage are excessively tart which are not liked by the consumer. The right time of harvesting in Punjab starts from the last week of December. Though the fruit attains the desired TSS earlier than the time of harvesting mentioned above, yetthe estimation of titratabie acidity is better criterion for judging the right harvesting stage. A fewdrops of juice drawnfrom a fruit can give TSS as high as 13%, but if the full juice is recovered from fruit, the TSS rarely exceeds 10%. Therefore TSS, acid ratio is the best criterion for assessing the stage of harvesting, which is 12:1 or more at right stage of maturity.