Harvest of kiwis in Iran
Kiwis’ trees start to making crops 3 or 4 years after cultivation. And in age of 8 to 10 , they reach to the complete ripening level.
Amount of kiwis can moderately reach to 25 tons in hectare but in some conditions about 50 tons in hectare also has been harvested. Kiwis in east of Mazandaran province are ready to be harvested from late-November but kiwis in Gilan province ripen 15 days before east of Mazandaran’s. In north of Iran the fruit can be kept in the trees until the leaves start to fall ( December 4th) but after that due to danger of birds’ attack and the cold, it’s not recommended to keep them longer.
This fruit after being harvested is not palatable because of the sour taste and being rough . They must be kept in 15 centigrade degree for at least 1 week then be consumed.
Mechanical harvest is not common yet. In traditional method, harvest is done in two steps. At the first step, bigger fruit will be harvested and the smaller ones will be remained for the second harvest.
The fruit after being harvested, must be transferred to the cold store. Before that, heat of fruit must be decreased so the harvested fruit must be washed and disinfected immediately to reduce the heat and be ready for transferring to the cold store.
Washing the fruit in addition to making it cooler, will remove dust and pathogen from it. After the operations and decreasing in the temperature of the harvested fruit, will be sorted an packed in a salon with a suitable temperature and be held in a cold store with 4 centigrade temperature.