CITRUS RESOURCES
GROWING CITRUS IN NEW ZEALAND – A Practical Guide
PICKING MANAGEMENT
The following are important points, but the key is training and constant supervision.
- Clean bins.
- Minimise or eliminate soil contact with bins.
- Pickers wear gloves, have short fingernails and handle fruit carefully especially when emptying bags.
- Bags must be clean and disinfected weekly.
- Quality control- checking pickers bins constantly for picking injuries size and colour.
- Keep fruit dry after harvest and get to packhouse immediately.
- Harvest blocks according to internal quality tests and assessment of skin condition.
- Ideally do NOT pick wet fruit. Especially after heavy rain. If you are unsure ask.
- If rots have been identified in the field, then leave them in the orchard contact grower or packhouse.
- Pickers must use correct clippers when harvesting citrus. To avoid clipper cuts.
- Do not use Buckets or Rubbish bins or any other sort of bin to pick fruit into.
