Harvest Maturity
- Skin Colour
No standard for inspection purposes. However aim to harvest at 80% or more red colour as scald can develop during cold storage and is more pronounced on poorly coloured fruit.
- Total Soluble Solids (TSS%)
Minimum 15.0
- Flesh Firmness
Maximum : 9.0 (at TSS of 15) and 10.0 (at TSS of 18)
Minimum : 5.5 (Air freight 1.5 lower than minimum)
Optimum : 7.0 to 8.0 (Not for inspection purposes)
- Malic Acid (MA)
Titratable MA is not a maturity standard for inspection purposes. However, MA is a useful parameter to determine optimum maturity. If flesh firmness remains high, a MA of 1.1% or lower is an indication that fruit is at optimum maturity.
- Harvesting
Generic information [PL2]
Other Quality Requirements At Pack
- Quality Requirements
Packaging And Cold Storage
- Internal Packaging (Standard Loose Pack)
Standard 5 kg loose pack
- Use 300 x 400 mm pulp or plastic trays.
- Use 300 x 400 mm paper inter-sheet between plums and top tray.
- Use 54 x 2 mm perforated LDPE grape 20 micron grape bag. Bag must be folded closed at the top.
- Use 300 x 400 mm white corrugated sheet (58 g) on top of the folded bag.
- Punnets
Use 54 x 2 mm perforated LDPE 20 micron grape bag for jumble packaging. Bag must be folded closed at the top.
- Other Packs
Refer to stone fruit industry packaging guidelines Pome Stone Handling Protocols
- Cold Storage
- The default temperature regime for African Delight plums is PD1. A PD9 shipping regime can be considered for poorly coloured fruit but cold storage life will be compromised.
- The maximum recommended cold storage period for African Delight plums in the standard loose pack is 56 days from the harvest date using the PD1 cold storage regime. If PD9 is used the expected storage potential is reduced to 42 days.
- Internal disorders develop exponentially during cold storage and cold storage should be as short as possible.
SmartfreshSM
- Note
SmartFreshSM [PL16] can be used on fully coloured African Delight plums and stored at a PD 1 shipping regime.
If poorly coloured African Delight plums are treated with SmartFreshSM, a PD 9 shipping regime is recommended. This will allow the fruit to colour up while the SmartFreshSM will retain flesh firmness.