Agronomist notebook: Post-harvest tomato care

Tomatoes are highly perishable due to their high moisture content. This means if they are not handled appropriately after harvesting, they might go bad, leading to losses.

Post-harvest handling of the fruits starts after harvesting to ensure quality is maintained for both fresh market and processing.

Proper post-harvest management helps in maintaining colour, freshness and nutritional value.

Leading causes of losses include poor harvesting techniques and transportation and lack of quality storage.

With farmer Moses having started to harvest, I took him through post-harvest management practices that he should stick to.

Healthy fruits

First, one must clean tomatoes soon after harvesting to remove dirt, which makes them unattractive to buyers, hence fetching low prices.

Wipe them using a clean piece of wet cloth or running water. Cleaning is crucial especially if the fruits have been harvested during the wet season.

After cleaning, sort healthy fruits from the rotten, damaged, or diseased ones. This prevents the spreading of diseases (such as fungal) from affected tomatoes to the good ones.

Thereafter, weigh the fruits. Weighing is a post-harvest management practice that helps one understand and know the number of tomatoes produced per unit area.

Alternatively, one can weigh the tomatoes immediately after harvesting and later sort them. Maintain a high level of hygiene when weighing the fruits.

Determine the fruit sizes

Grading is a post-harvest management practice that is usually done to determine the fruit sizes, colour and ripening stage.

After grading, tomatoes should be put in appropriate packages to prevent them from dehydration and minimise damage during transportation and storage.

For better packaging, orderly arrange the harvested produce by placing them in crates or containers for storage and marketing.

It is also vital to identify the appropriate method of transferring the produce from the farm to the store and the market. As in most cases, losses occur during transportation due to mechanical damages.

Tomatoes can be stored at room temperature for a duration of up to one week or refrigerated for up to two weeks. 

Proper storage increases the shelf-life of the fruits. Store tomatoes in baskets, crates, racks or nets to allow free air circulation.  

Plastic bags

Storing tomatoes together with lemons helps reduce decay. Do not wrap tomatoes or store them in plastic bags as lack of air circulation reduces the shelf-life.

I asked Moses to avoid storing tomatoes in areas that receive direct sunlight or sources of heat. 

Again, one should not mix ripe and unripe tomatoes in the same storage bag to make it easier for the farmer to easily identify those that are overripe.

Processed tomatoes have a longer shelf-life. However, proper handling techniques should be observed.

Good post-harvest management results in reduced risks of consumers purchasing unsafe tomatoes.

In our next article, we shall focus on cost of production and the output.

[email protected]