Varieties and ripeness at harvest. Quality assurance
for strawberries begins in the field with variety selection.
Strawberry varieties vary greatly in berry firmness
when ripe, sugar and acid content, disease susceptibility,
and yield. Selection of the varieties to grow can
have a tremendous impact on potential fruit quality.
Fruit with better flavor may have lower yields or less
disease resistance. Management must determine which
varieties will be grown and at which stage of ripeness
fruit will be harvested to best meet their goals for fruit
quality. Strawberry fruit do not continue to ripen after
harvest and will not increase in sugar content. Therefore,
riper fruit will have higher sugar content and better
flavor quality. Several commodity groups have found
that a percentage of customers will pay more for riper
fruit with higher sugar content (soluble solids content).
To supply consistent flavor quality to these customers,
soluble solids content (SSC) should be monitored to ensure a minimum SSC is reached. A minimum of 7%
SSC is recommended for strawberry and 10% would be
excellent. The level of ripeness should be monitored in
harvested trays to check picker performance.