Although all fruits, vegetables, and berries undergo changes after being harvested, not all of them can continue to ripen.

Some fruits can become juicy and ripe only on the mother plant. Once harvested, they can’t become sweeter, since they don’t accumulate starch during the ripening process. When nutrients, including starch, no longer enter the fruit from the plant, its ripening stops. These fruits should be harvested at the peak of their ripeness. And you need to eat them as soon as possible.

This is typical for different types of berries, grapes, citrus fruits, and pineapples.

Other fruits continue to ripen even after being harvested, becoming more tasty and aromatic. This is due to increased cellular respiration, during which fruits or vegetables produce ethylene. The initially low concentration of ethylene causes the fruit to produce more and more gas until its peak concentration is reached. Ethylene affects fruits, causing an increase in their metabolism and provoking the changes that usually occur during ripening.

Fruits that can ripen after picking include bananas, peaches, nectarines, apricots, mangoes, kiwi, pears, avocados, persimmons, and tomatoes.

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