Harvesting and Marketing

Most of the strawberries harvested in Florida are shipped fresh to northern markets from December through April for immediate sale. To obtain a high quality product, fruit should be less than three-fourths full color when harvested (40). Fruit that are fully ripe are easily bruised and deteriorate or decay in transit. Discard overripe fruit or those with decay spots, since any decay can easily spread to adjoining fruit (40). Since strawberries are highly perishable, the fruit should be cooled immediately after harvest. Fruit should be cooled to just above freezing by forcing cold air through the packing crates (40). Fruit quality is lost rapidly if exposed to warm temperatures for even a short time. It has been stated that the loss of fruit quality at a temperature of 85°F for one hour is about equivalent to one week at 32°F (26). During warm weather, extra efforts should be made to cool fruit immediately after harvest. Towards the end of the harvest period, usually in early April, the fresh market shipping season ends. Fruit for the remainder of the harvest period are either sold fresh to local markets and to processors or are U-picked.

Ease of harvest is influenced by foliage density, fruit size, length of fruit stalk, and how strongly the fruit clings to the stem. Harvesting of fruit, generally, is directly into the shipping flat. Some grading is done in the packing shed to remove any undesirable fruit from the flat. Rows should not be so long that picker spend an inordinate amount of time carrying flats from field to packing shed. Packing sheds can be located on both ends of rows to shorten carrying distance.

Malformed fruit can be a problem in Florida and its severity varies with the year, the cultivar, the grower, and even the particular field. Malformed fruit are the result of incomplete pollination of the strawberry flower (22). The extent of the malformation is closely related to the number of pistils on the flower that are not fertilized (22). There are many reasons for malformed fruit. On some cultivars, the number of malformed fruit increases as the temperature rises above 104°F because of decreased pollen activity (51). Fungicides sprayed on day of flowering can inhibit pollen germination and cause malformed fruit (51), as can lack of pollinating insects (51). Other causes are frosts or freezes, cold but not freezing temperatures accompanied by wind and/or rain, parasite damage, overcrowded plant beds, fungi, cold soils, and, with some cultivars, poor quality pollen (33, 34). Additional causes are herbicide injury, the tarnished plant bug, boron deficiency, and localized rot caused by blossom petals adhering to fruit (45). A Rhizoctonia, sp. fungus can cause malformed fruit (31), as can high N (17), low levels of foliar zinc and copper (24), and larvae of army worms and other insects feeding on flowers. Boron levels in the young but fully expanded foliage should be 25 ppm or greater, and the zinc and copper levels are recommended to be above 20 and 10 ppm, respectively (24). Determination of the cause of malformed fruit can be difficult since the damage is often not noticed until days or weeks after it occurred and the casual agent may no longer be present.