PRE-HARVEST, HARVEST AND POST-HARVEST STRATEGIES FOR ORGANIC PRODUCTION OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Growers and storage operators handling organic fruits and vegetables not only cannot use un-approved chemicals or treatments that are widely-used on conventionally-grown produce, there are fewer pre- and post-harvest technologies available for use on organic, compared with conventional fruits and vegetables.
There has been insufficient effort to provide new quality-maintaining technologies for organic products, resulting in few post-harvest methods being available for organic fruits and vegetables.
The greatest need is to develop strategies to control post-harvest decay and disorders.
Recent advances in controlled atmosphere (CA) technology, e.g., Dynamic CA (DCA), will be discussed since CA technology is a known technology that, depending on the commodity, can maintain quality as well as reduce decay and/or eliminate the use of insect and disorder-controlling chemicals.
Other non-chemical post-harvest technologies which may be successful will also be discussed, e.g., ethylene and other sprout control technologies, UV-C treatment, heat treatment, anti-microbial surfaces, and natural volatiles.
More research is needed on each of these technologies, both singly and in combination with each other.

XXVIII International Horticultural Congress on Science and Horticulture for People (IHC2010): International Symposium on Organic Horticulture: Productivity and Sustainability

R.K. Prange

dynamic controlled atmosphere, sprout control, heat, UV-C, anti-microbial surfaces, liquid glass, copper, volatiles

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2012.933.3