Fruit maturity and harvest

• Under favorable conditions, banana starts flowering in 9-12 months and
• Fruits matures in about 4-5 months depending upon varieties, climate etc.
• Banana are harvested at 3/4th maturity stage for distant markets or for chips making purpose while, for local markets are harvested at full maturity.
• The following are the indications of maturity of banana.

1. Drying of top leaves.
2. Changing of fruit colour from green to light green.

• The floral ends of fruits are shed with slight hand touch at apices.

1. Fruit become plumpy and angles are filled & disappear.
2. One or two fruits ripe at the basal end (yellow colour).

• Harvested when Starch content of the fruit (22-25%).

Yield:

• Yield of banana varies with variety and production practices.
• Tall cultivars usually yield 15-20 tones/ha.
• Cavendish group varieties yield about 40t/ha,
• Whereas the hill banana/cooking varieties yield about 11-15 tones/ha.

Post-harvest management:

• Banana can be stored at about 13°C with the Relative Humidity of 85-95 % for 3 weeks and is ripened in a week at 16.5-21.0°C.
• The fruits should not be stored / shifted under refrigerated condition.
• The storage life can be increased by keeping the fruits in high concentration of carbon dioxide and low concentration of oxygen.
• Also storing in sealed polythene bags containing ethylene absorbent like potassium permanganate.
• Shrink film wrapping or Waxol (12 %) treatment can extend shelf life up to 3 weeks.
• Bananas are not usually allowed to ripen on the tree.

Ripening of Banana

• Smoking has to be done with straw leaves & cow dung in a closed chamber for 18-24 hours in summer and 48 hours in winter and later shifted to ventilated room for uniform ripening.
• The exogenous application of 100 ppm ethylene gas in an enclosed chamber for 24 hrs. for will produce uniform color and ripening.