Effect of harvest date on yield and quality of black currant fruit

Abstract

The effect of time of harvesting was investigated in a black currant (Ribes nigrum cv. Magnus) trial in which 2-year-old border strip irrigated hedgerows were sequentially harvested on 11 occasions during a 7-week period in December and January. Highest machine and total yields were attained approximately 1 week before the crop was ready to harvest. By the time the fruit was ripe for machine harvest, a yield loss of l0% had occurred. After 17 days half the potential yield was lost. Changes in fresh berry weight, fruit colour, and sugar content during the harvest period are also described, and the implications of these findings to the commercial black currant grower are explained.

Keywords:

• black currant
• Ribes nigrum
• harvest time
• yield
• sugar content
• fruit colour
• berry weight