Influence of cultural and harvesting methods on fruit quality of red raspberry

Abstract

Harvest method had a consistent and significant effect on fruit quality parameters (acidity, berry integrity, and colour) for any one cultivar irrespective of the season. At any picking date, machine-harvested fruit were always less acidic and had lower berry integrity than comparable hand- picked fruit. For the cultivars ‘Skeena’ and ‘Glen Clova’, hand-picked fruit always had more intense red coloration than machine-harvested fruit. There were less marked differences in Brix levels between hand-picked and machine-harvested fruit. The results suggest fruit colour and Brix levels are not suitable as the only guides to fruit quality. Measures of acidity and possibly also fruit firmness should be used to complement these tests if an accurate assessment of raspberry quality is to be gained. Biennial bearing, when compared with annual cropping, had no discernable effect on fruit quality in the season investigated. © Crown copyright 1991.