by Shane Hutto
MAINTAIN
YOUR GRAIN
Growing a bumper crop of perfect plants is just the beginning—
the job of the grower doesn’t end with the harvest!
You have made it this far—your crops are ready for harvest and the route to
their final destination is all planned out. This is when many growers start partying, assuming the battle is over and they’ve won. Even after harvest, though,
your plants are not truly dead, as they actually continue to ‘breathe’ (exchange
gases) for many days after they are picked. They can’t grow any more or increase
their sugar content after they’ve been harvested but they can degrade, which
means that after harvest a crop can only maintain or lose value. I have had
the opportunity to study in some depth what happens to plants after they are
harvested and I know that typically as much money and effort can go into a
natural product after it is harvested as went into growing it. The basics of these
post-harvest processes involve cooling, processing and storage.
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Maximum Yield USA | March 2012