Post harvest Management of Horticultural Crops (2+1)

Types of packing

Tightly filled packs are desirable for most produce, but without under filling and overfilling to avoid vibration injury. The package, not the produce should, bear the stacking load. Some produce, such as potato, carrot and orange will withstand reasonable compressive loads. For non-rigid packages, such as mesh bags are satisfactory provided they are handled with care.

1. Bundles - Some vegetables (drumstick, lemon grass stem, onion tops and asparagus etc.) and cut flowers (roses, gladiolus, carnation and iris etc.).
2. Volume or box packing – fruits are poured into the carton, after filling pack is vibrated to tight packing within box (eg. Apple, orange, tomato etc.) on a standard weight.
3. Package insert –moulded pulp or plastic trays to isolate the individual fruits. These are costly but are used in delicate and costly fruits such as mango and ready for retail displays.
4. Wrapping – covering individual fruits with paper/various film (eg. Papaya, gourds)
5. Bags – like gunny bag, hessian bag in crops such as potato, onion, garlic, carrot etc.
6. Punnet packing – soft fruits such as strawberry, grapes, minimally processed products






To recommend packages for all fruits, vegetables, flowers and others is impracticable. The most suitable packages depend on many factors such as

• Region – tropical/temperate
• Environmental condition – cool/ warmer/ humid/ hot
• length and nature of market chain – local/ distant/ international market
• Method of handling and transport – manual/ machinery and
• Availablity and cost of materials – plenty(tomato) or scare(strawberry) of produce
• Whether the produce is to be refrigerated – wax impregnated fibreboard for cold storage