How to ensure the longest storage life for your harvest.

1. Post Harvest Handling
for Maintaining Quality
Presented by Michelle Akindiya
Farmshare Austin Education Manager
www.farmshareaustin.org
education@farmshareaustin.org

2. The highest quality is at
the moment of harvest.
Post harvest techniques should focus on how to
maintain that quality.

3. Four main concerns with post harvest handling:
1. Avoid physical damage & bruising
2. Quickly reduce field temperature
3. Minimize moisture loss and shrinkage
4. Sanitation

4. First, grow a
healthy plant.
● Focus on soil health and
nutrient balance
● Proper irrigation
● Disease and pest prevention
● Variety Selection
○ appropriate for the season,
your farm’s microclimate
and soil type
● Avoid mechanical injury from
tractor or hand cultivation
● Trellis when appropriate to keep
fruit off the ground
Production practices effect
harvest quality.

5. Second, harvest
at peak quality
● Some crops can be harvested before
they are fully ripe and then ripen by
the time they get to market:
○ Tomatoes, cantaloupe, fruit and
berries
○ The crop must reach a certain
level of maturity (about 75%
ripe) before that technique
works without sacrificing flavor
● All other produce must be harvested
as ripe as the consumer will desire
○ Be aware that the storage length
of baby crops is decreased
● When harvested over-ripe, storage
time and flavor is compromised

6. Best practices for harvesting
● Harvest early in the morning while it is cool. In the winter months, wait for things to thaw
before harvesting.
● Be gentle. Produce should be seen and not heard.
● Remove jewelry & trim nails before harvesting. Wear gloves, especially when field packing
or harvesting items that will not be washed.
● Cull disease and over maturity in the field as much as possible.
● Handle each crop as little as possible
○ field bunch - precount rubber bands or twist ties to keep track of harvest quantity
○ field pack - as much as possible pack in the field items that do not need to be washed
● Use proper tools that are clean and sharp

7. Harvest Containers
● Use containers with smooth inside surfaces and venting
○ Smooth surfaces are easier to clean and sanitize and will
not bruise produce
● Think about storing your containers when not in use.
○ Containers should be foldable, stackable and/or nesting
● Using a standard size helps with planning & projecting yields
● Avoid overpacking containers
○ You don’t want anything getting squished
○ Put heavier crops, like potatoes, in smaller boxes to
prevent injury
● Avoid underpacking containers
○ You don’t want product to be able to roll around and get
bruised
IFCO or RPC

8. Harvest when dry to prevent spreading disease
Better to harvest dry:
1. Nightshades - fungal diseases
2. Cucurbits - fungal diseases
3. Berries - rot and fungal diseases
4. Green beans & peas - rust and powdery
mildew
5. Storage roots - you want them to dry
out, wash before sale
6. Storage alliums - want to cure & dry -
more likely to rot when wet
Can be harvested wet
a. Greens
b. Brassicas
c. Sweet corn
d. Fresh alliums - green onions
e. Fresh roots

9. Get it COOL!
Harvested produce is still alive.
It continues to respire - to breath
- even after it is harvested
Remember, the second a crop is
pulled from the ground or removed
from the plant, it begins to
deteriorate.
We can slow down the rate of
respiration by getting the crop to
the lowest safe temperature as
quickly as possible.

10. ● Carbohydrates break down to CO2 and
water
● Both are released from the crop leading
to ripening, rotting and dehydration
● Results of Respiration:
○ loss of nutrients
○ drying out
○ weight loss
○ flavor loss - sugars turn to
starch
○ loss of value
○ shorter shelf life
○ loss of reputation.
Respiration

11. Temperature reduces
respiration rate!
The higher the respiration
rate of a crop, the more
essential it is to get it cool
fast and maintain the cold
chain in storage and delivery.

12. Plan for the
whole harvest
● Break up into teams
● Plan your harvest to get the
crops with higher respiration
rates first
● Take everything out with you
at once - all the tools, crates,
rubber bands, etc.
● Get product back to
packshed as soon as possible
A good Farm Manager
orchestrates efficiency.

13. Harvest early in the morning when cool
● Keep harvested produce in the shade
○ under trees, in a shaded wagon or truck
○ Can use burlap, old sheets, row cover or
shade cloth to create shade
● Can take buckets of water out to the
field to harvest into
○ Good for cut flowers or bunches of
greens

14. Cooling
Methods
Rapid cooling to the coldest
safe temperature is essential!
Hydro-cool
Room Cooling
Forced Air
Icing

15. Hydro-Cool
Just what it sounds like - dunking the crop in cold water
It is more about getting the field heat out than about
cleaning the produce, but it can serve both purposes
Your packing material must be able to be wet
You’ll need vented boxes and/or drying tables
Your water basin needs to be able to be sanitized. You
may want to add sanitizer to the water.

16. Room Cooling
Also just what it sounds like - produce is simply loaded into a cold room, and cold air is allowed
to circulate among the cartons.
It takes more time to bring down the temp, but good for crops that don’t want to be wet
Best suited for less perishable commodities, such as potatoes, onions, apples, sweet potatoes,
and citrus fruits
It is important to leave about 1 inch between stacks of boxes inside the refrigerated room in
order for the cold air to circulate and cool the boxes evenly
Produce in vented boxes will cool much faster than produce packed in un-vented containers.

17. Ice & Forced Air
Icing
Quick to cool and keep humidity high, but
can be used only with water-tolerant, non-
chilling, sensitive products
Need water-tolerant packages
Need an ice machine
Forced air
Fans blow air through stacks of produce
It is usually expensive and can dry out the
produce too much, but is much quicker to
cool than room cooling.

18. Washing & Drying
● If you can, do not wash.
○ Use mulch and trellising to keep things clean in the field
○ Grow more upright varieties
○ Harvest with cotton gloves and dry brush in the field
● When you do wash, use municipal water or treated water
● You may also want to add a sanitizer to the wash water of high
risk crops
● Dry well before packing or baging
● Consider equipment to help you save labor on high volume
crops
○ Barrel washer
○ Greens bubbler & spinner

19. Packing & Sorting
● Think like a buyer, not a like a farmer
○ Your reputation is on the line - don’t let anything but the best
go out to your customers
○ Customers are long term assets
○ Different customers will have different expectations and
wants
● Don’t over or underfill containers
● Use clean containers with no sharp edges, stackable
& standard size
● You can use reusable ones, but think about how you
get them back and how you sanitize them
● You can line bins with plastic liners to keep in
moisture if needed
● Do label and BRAND your products.
https://familyfarmed.org/
farmer-training/

20. Packshed Design
● Efficiency of flow
○ Produce and people
○ Dirty in one side,
clean out the other
● Ergonomic
● Easy to clean and sanitize
● Appropriate technology

21. Storage
Each crop has a unique set of
requirements to maximize
storage time
Variables that affect storage time:
Temperature
Humidity
Ethylene Gas Production &
Sensitivity

22. Humidity
Loss of water from produce can cause wilting,
shriveling or textural changes that can reduce
value.
Too much water and you will see rots and molds,
especially with longer storage crops.
You’ll want both a thermometer and hygrometer in
your cold rooms
Storage crates should be able to drain for excess
water, but also be kept covered to keep in
humidity.

23. Chilling Injury
Keeping products too
cold can also be a
serious problem.
Many fruiting crops do
not like to go below 50
degrees for long periods
of time.

24. Storage Groups
LOW HUMIDITY
Cold (32 - 36 degrees)
Onions & Garlic
Warmer (not below 50 degrees)
Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Winter Squash
HIGH HUMIDITY
Cold (32 - 36 degrees)
Leafy Greens, Fresh Root Crops, Brassicas
Warmer (not below 50 degrees)
Cucumbers, Summer Squash, Okra, Green
Beans, Tomatoes

25. Ethylene Gas
Some crops are highly sensitive to
ethylene gas
Some are high producers of the gas
Keep these two groups separate
Have good ventilation in your cold
rooms
Remove over ripe fruits from cold
rooms

26. Ethylene Groups
Ethylene Producers
Apples
Cantaloupe
Pears
Ethylene Sensitive:
Apples
Brassicas
Green Beans
Carrots
Cucumbers
Lettuce
Parsley
Pears
Tomatoes
Watermelon

27. Post Harvest Cheat Sheet by Atina Diffley :
https://organicfarmingworks.com/~turnhere/organicfarmingworks.com/wp-
content/uploads/storage-requirements-for-vegetables.pdf

28. Cooler Options
Coolbots - https://www.storeitcold.com/
Used commercial walk ins - check
auctions
Old refrigerated trucks
Old refrigerators
Kits
Build from scratch - R25 insulation value

29. Delivery
Maintain the cold chain!
How are you going to get your products to market safely?
Do you need to purchase a refrigerated truck? Many coolers?
The answer lies somewhere in your crop list, climate and distance to market.

30. Resources
http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/
https://organicfarmingworks.com/
Small-Scale Postharvest Handling Practices: A Manual for Horticultural Crops
(5th Edition) - http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/files/230094.pdf