HARVESTING AND STORING

One of the first publications in Germany on empirical data from experiments with a number of experimental picking dates was the one by de Haas and L. Wennemuth (38) in which comparatively 17 % pitted fruits were found after very early picking and close to 0 % after ‘normal’ on rather late picking.
A delay of placing the fruit in storage, on the other hand had no effect, according to work in Western Australia (58) and in Belgium (39). These observations were generally supported by authors publishing in subsequent years (68, 83, 7, 19, 81, 40, 41, 21). Staden (91) also claims that storage conditions are indifferent in terms of influence on pit.
Only in few instances were there serious doubts about the influence of picking time (62, 88).