What is Mango Picking?

Mangoes harvesting is a difficult job that requires planning, timing, and technique for the proper harvesting of the mangoes. And the most important part of the process is mango packing.

Mangoes are an important crop grown in tropical and subtropical areas. Mango season is much awaited all around the world. They are also harvested all around the world at different times and are loved by all due to their unique taste and a lot of varieties to choose from.

The different varieties of mangoes are harvested and cultivated at different times around the world. If you have a mango tree or are a mango tree grower, you need to acquire the skill to identify the correct time to harvest mangoes. This article will provide you information that might help you master this skill and pick mangoes of superior quality.

What do you mean by mango picking?

Mango Picking is the clipping of the mangoes when they are not fully ripe but are in mature condition. However, it is a long and tedious job that requires a lot of hard work. The color of mangoes changes from bright green to dull greenish-yellow. Mangoes are plucked at a mature stage to produce optimum quality and are hand-picked or plucked during harvesting.

They are harvested during a particular season. It is a good practice to cut a sample mango to test whether the mangoes of a tree are ripe and mature enough or not. This will make sure that the mangoes are plucked at the right time.

How do I know if the mango is ripe and ready to pick?

Nothing is more complicated than knowing whether a mango is fully ripe or not and ready to eat. Here we are going to discuss some ways through which you can know whether a mango is fully ripe and is ready to eat.

1. The feel

When you are talking about a fully ripe mango, you must talk about the texture. A ripe mango, when taken in hand, feels very soft. Before buying a mango, you must always choose those mangoes which feel firmer and keep those in the kitchen till they get a slightly soft texture, something similar to a peach. But always be careful that it must not get extra ripe and too soft.

2. The smell

The second way through which you can test whether a mango is fully ripe or not is through its smell. The ripe and unripe mangoes smell very different and can be easily distinguished.

A ripe mango is always going to smell kind of fruity near the stem area. Basically, a fruity smell combines the smell of pineapple and melon. Don’t get confused by the smell of fruitiness; you can easily distinguish these smells. The scent of these mangoes is kind of sweet as mangoes are sweet fruits.

3. The appearance

Apart from the look and the smell, you can also distinguish a ripe mango through its appearance, as it is very much different from unripe mangoes. A lot of people think that knowing a mango color can tell you whether the mango is ripe or not, but this is not always true. The light red color is not always an accurate indicator of fully ripe mango, as mangoes can be green, yellow, and even a slight pink shade. The colors basically tell you about the type of mango or the area from which they belong. Additionally, it is a fact that a ripe mango is always going to be rounded, sort of like a football.

How to do mango picking in the right way?

There are around 1100 varieties of mango grown all around the world, with the majority of the fruit coming from India. Depending upon the region and the time in which they come, mangoes are available in various colors and sizes. To pick a mango you must learn the right ways through which it is picked. Here are some of the ways through which you can pick the right mangoes.

1. Touch and feel the entire mango
Whenever you check a ripe mango, it will always feel very soft, just like avocados and peaches. On the other hand, if you want to have a mango that you want to eat after a few days, you always have to choose a mango with firmer skin and allow the mango to ripen at home.

2. Inspect the mango visually

An ideal mango is of the shape of a football, so for choosing good mangoes, it must be plump and rounded, especially around the stem.

You must not choose flat and thin mangoes because they are likely to be stringy. Avoid choosing mangoes with their skin wrinkled and shriveled because they will no longer be ripe.

3. Smelling mangoes near their stem

Ripe mangoes will always have a strong sweet and fruity smell near their stem. The fruity smell is just similar to melon and pineapple.

Since mangoes are sweet and have high natural sugar content, they will ferment easily, so the sour taste and alcoholic odor are a distinctive sign that mango is no longer ripe.

4. Check the color

In general, knowing the color of the mangoes is not the best way to check whether a mango is ripe or not, since there are many colors of ripe mangoes it may be bright yellow, green, pink, or red. Colors alone do not tell you about whether a mango is ripe or not. So you must also check other factors and keep them in mind before distinguishing ripe and unripe mangoes.

Final words

Mangoes harvesting is not as easy as it may seem. The sweet fruit is cultivated, keeping in mind the factors that are required to produce them in large quantities and good quality. This article describes all the important elements to properly choose mangoes even if you are not a skilled grower.

One can easily distinguish how to choose a ripe mango once he has read this article. The article also has discussed how mango picking is done in various ways and methods involved.