Some time ago, Summerfruit NZ developed a series of fruit maturity guides as part of the 'Harvest Assurance Tools' project. The colour-based guides were designed for on orchard use with the objective being to eliminate under-ripe fruit from entering the market place.
There are a small number of these guides still available to help growers with their harvest and packing decisions, as well as being a useful resource when training new picking and packing staff.
The simple and effective guides are double sided and have easy to understand images. One side shows fruit stages indicating the colour changes from green and immature through to over mature and ripe at a glance. The other side shows the various stages with additional detail and explanation of each stage.
Currently the guides available are:
| Apricots | Nectarines | Peaches | Plums |
| Clutha Gold | Mayglo | Golden Queen | Black Doris |
| Royal Rosa | Pearl | Tatura Belle | Fortune |
| Sundrop | Spring Bright | Omega | |
| Primetime |
If you are interested in receiving copies of the free guides, please send an email to Summerfruit NZ here along with the variety you want, contact phone number and your postal address. As numbers are limited, orders will be sent on a first in/first out basis, so please get your order in asap.