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It all depends on the moment the fruit is plucked from the tree. If this occurs at the beginning of its maturation, it will probably remain green. However, if the farmer waits for this type of vegetable puberty to pass, it will continue to mature until it is ready for consumption. The secret lies in ethylene, a hormone produced by plants, which is responsible for the transformations characteristic of ripening, such as changing color, softening the fruit and increasing the amount of sugar. “Fruits plucked very early suffer little action from ethylene and never ripen”, says biologist Sônia Perez, from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCAR). The ideal is to wait for them to be ready to be harvested, but, to facilitate transport and storage, the most common is for farmers to plan the harvest for a stage known as green-ripe. “At this stage, the fruit is still green, but it has already been sensitized by the hormone.
To complete development, an extra dose of ethylene is sprayed on the harvested fruits and they continue to ripen at home”, says Sônia. As each fruit matures at a different time, it is difficult to choose, just by appearance, the right time to harvest. Small farmers figure this out through the old trial and error method and pass the wisdom from father to son.