JINHUA, Specialized Manufacturer and Supplier of Greenhouse Parts and Materials
语言选择： 
From the excitement of the start of the season to the growing operations and now the harvest, a grower needs to be prepared. Proper planning and preparation just like with the start of a season is essential to a successful and hassle free harvest. In order to make an effective plan, an operator should understand the overall nature and structure of harvested products as each method of harvesting is strongly influenced on the plant’s basic structure. Additional considerations need to be considered in the method of harvest such as metabolic processes, development of plants and plant organs, and overall stress in harvested products.
When considering a plant structure, one extremely important concept is whether or not the organ or tissue- at the cellular or sub-cellular level- is not fixed, but in a state of transition.
These changes in structure are key during the post-harvest period. Any changes in structure are especially important during this period because once it is formed it will eventually be destined to degrade and recycle back into carbon dioxide. Marked changes in the structure occur with the eventual use of the product or due to loss from a pathogen invasion. At the cellular and sub-cellular level, key changes occur and intensify as the product approaches senescence or death which can be seen in seeds and intact plants, or during the beginning of a renewed growth cycle.
These products can be grouped based on their overall morphology and whether or not they’re intact plants or detached plant parts. Detached plant parts can be further divided into subcategories.
Intact plants are those that are whole plants when harvested and removed from the production environment of the commercial greenhouse. These retain both the vegetative growth and the root system which may or may not still be associated with soil or growing media depending on the type of growing operation within the greenhouse.
A benefit of intact plant harvesting is that these plants should have little-to-no harvest injury and have maximum capacity to continue or to recommence growth and development. This is because they have access to all the normal requirements for plant growth. Depending on the type of intact plants, whether germinated seed, bare-root seedlings and root cuttings, and tissue culture plants, differing harvest method requirements will need to be met.
These are equipment, tools, storage facilities such as coolers or quarantine areas before shipping, and possible specialized procedures based on the type of plants.
Detached plant parts are more broad in their classifications, however, detached plant parts are all plant organs that are utilized by people that come from every portion of the plant.
These parts can be divided into above-ground structures such as leaves, petioles, stems shoots and spikes, flowers, and fruits, as well as below-ground structures like roots, rhizomes and tubers, bulbs, corms, and non-storage organs. Depending on the type of plant part that is being harvested and stored before shipping for delivery to the destined buyer, the operation will need to take specific measures to ensure that plant parts do not decompose or become damaged or stressed.
Stress can lead to decreased quality of the crop leading to lower prices and a loss of profits. Research should be conducted before planting crops to ensure that specific needs during the harvest process or met before the harvest time.
When dealing with plants there are two main plant processes that need to be considered and monitored for excellent qualities in yields. These processes are photosynthesis and respiration. Photosynthesis provides the carbohydrates and energy for the plant while respiration stores that energy in the form of carbon compounds and releases it as the energy for the plant to use. The effects of respiration substantially alter the methods employed in handling and storing plant products and are considered high commercial importance.
Any loss of energy stores in a plant product results in a decrease in energy reserves of the tissue. This will lead to tissue starvation and accelerated death and decomposition of the harvested product such as leaves, flower, and any other structures that are not carbon storage sites. Energy which is the final product and the respiratory process has a significant influence both on the maintenance of the product and the preferred storage environment to ensure that products are the highest quality when given to the customer or consumer. In the storage and handling of harvested products, proper cooling and environmental control is essential as around 46% of the total respiratory energy is lost as heat.
There are many factors that affect the rate of dark respiration and the overall storage time that a crop can undergo before being a total loss. Proper management of these factors is imperative for maintaining quality in maximizing storage life. These factors are temperature, gas composition, moisture content of tissue, wounding, species and plant parts, cultivar of the plant, stage of development of the plant, surface area to volume ratio of the product, nature of the harvested plant product’s surface, and pre-harvest cultural and post-harvest handling conditions.
The easiest way to control these factors is through Automation and careful monitoring of the storage facility, with monitors and moisture levels, humidity, temperature, and gas levels such as CO2, can be monitored and controlled through sensors and systems.
Plants and plant organs progress through their lifecycle through a dynamic series of genetically controlled developmental processes. Plants display a remarkable degree of variability and their growth cycle is strongly influenced specifically by the environment in which they are grown. Plants respond to light, temperature, and nutrients throughout the developmental period. This encompasses the entire time frame from the first initiation of growth to the eventual death of the plant or plant organ.
For many crop plants this natural development cycle is interrupted prior to its completion by the process of harvesting. Plants such as lettuce are harvested early in their development cycle, while grains and dried crops are harvested after their full growth cycle. Depending on the type of crop being grown, the time and stage of development of the plant when harvested will vary. There are a number of distinct developmental stages that a plant undergoes. These are dormancy, flowering, fruit ripening, abscission, aging, and senescence.
Plants have evolved over many millennia to adapt to a wide range of environmental conditions. Within the broad range of conditions that a plant naturally undergoes in the non-controlled real world, there’s a relatively narrow span under which the plant or plant parts function at their optimum levels. When a plant is exposed to conditions outside the boundaries in this narrow space, the plant undergoes some form of stress. Stress, therefore, is an external factor that tends to interrupt, restrict or accelerate normal metabolic processes and does so in an adverse or negative way.
The extent of the injury sustained is determined by the overall severity of the stress, the length of time the plants are exposed, and the plant’s general resistance to the stress. There are different types of stress from temperature stress whether it is high or low, water stress, environmental stress with gas composition of the air, radiation stress, chemical stress, mechanical stress such as wounding during the harvesting process or bruising, gravitational stress, and more.
By taking these four major considerations for harvesting of horticultural crops, a commercial grower is able to fully control and monitor the quality of their product to ensure the highest yields and profitability. Additional considerations should be taken into place such as sanitation, knowledge of the crop being grown, and overall goals of the operation. Careful planning before the growing season will help with the harvesting process. RF Agriculture has a team of experts with decades of combined experience in the commercial horticulture industry to assist growers and their harvesting plans. Agents are available to plan, install, maintain, and more- making all aspects of the growing season from start to finish as stress free as possible.