Himsagar is delicious but goes soft and spoils very fast after ripening. I lose fruit if it does not sell quickly. How do I manage harvest and handling to reduce losses?
Himsagar is naturally soft and perishable, so the trick is harvest maturity, temperature and speed. Harvest at firm mature-green, never tree-ripe, using a clipper with a short stalk to avoid sap burn and bruising. De-sap, wash, give a hot water dip to slow anthracnose rots, dry and grade. Move fruit through a cool chain and ripen in a controlled ethylene chamber close to the point of sale so you control the day it softens, rather than letting it ripen randomly in transit. Sell on a tight schedule to nearby premium markets, or pre-book buyers. For surplus or slightly over-soft fruit, divert to pulp, juice or amsotto and pickle uses common in Bengal so nothing is wasted. Careful handling and a ripening chamber convert this fragile variety into a reliable premium product.
Picking firm and ripening in a chamber near the market changed everything for me. Earlier random ripening in trucks gave heavy spoilage.
Extra soft fruit I send for amsotto and pulp. No reason to throw away Himsagar, it just needs a backup use.
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