Talk:Ripening

Completely uninformative

Does not explain the mechanism behind ripening of fruit at all. An embarrassing article for wikipedia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.98.78.46 (talk) 04:47, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

Unreferenced

Shortage of pollinators can be an unrecognized factor in poor ripening of fruit. In a test in the Rio Grande valley of Texas, increasing the number of beehives in cantaloupes by a factor of about 2 1/2, increased the total crop by almost seven tons per acre, mostly due to increased sugar content in the fruit.

That's cool, but I'd like to see a reference. Also, a percentage of improvement would be better than a tonnage, unless you state the tonnage per acre before the extra bees where introduced.  — db48x 05:17, Mar 12, 2004 (UTC)

Do Lemons ripen to yellow if picked green?

That is the whole question. If you pick some fruit too early it will not ripen. I believe lemons and oranges begin to dry up when picked green and do not ripen to the yellow, esp lemons, which means a lemon is ripe. Is this right or not. And if not is there a best way to ripen them,,,,,off the tree;;;; and still retain the full juice?

Thanks Al Hawthorne — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.141.144.52 (talk) 21:16, 7 May 2006‎ (UTC)

The application of analogist and inhibitor of plant hormone can control the timing of ripening. For example, banana are picked when they are still green. The banana was kept in a room with high conc. of ethylene for a period, the banana will become ripen when ready in market. Chemicals would be used to inhibit ripening of lemon to maintain the yearly supply. Shrimp wong 16:57, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Does the second sentence in the main article make sense to anyone? Especially considering that the first sentence says that during ripening the acid content decreases in fruit.

Mark Z (talk) 17:13, 19 February 2008 (UTC)Mark Z

Peaches

Why do peaches get juicier after they are picked and as they ripen? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.201.157.194 (talk) 17:33, 9 June 2006‎ (UTC)

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Artificial Ripening Using Acetylene?

Does artificially ripening fruit with a toxic hydrocarbon sound implausible to anyone else? There's no reference cited for this "fact" but everything else I have read lists ethylene gas as the cause for the ripening process. Any chemists/biologists out there wanna take a stab at this?

CleverPun (talk) 20:58, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Calcium carbide [C2C] is placed in a sealed package under fruits and water vapour from fruits when reacting with C2C releases sufficient ethylene for ripening as per this reference. Hope this clears up. Docku:“what up?” 21:43, 13 October 2008 (UTC)

Calcium carbide is CaC2 giving acetylene after reaction with water. See Calcium_carbide#Production of acetylene. TH 15:56, 2 February 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.194.65.113 (talk)

Brix acid ratio

We should either make a page or add it in a paragraph here. This source might help. [1] - 76.97.245.5 (talk) 06:36, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Ripening indicators

I am a little confused by this section. It starts by saying that iodine can be used to "check if the fruit is ripening or rotting by showing whether starch in the fruit has turned into sugar." This implies that a ripening fruit will be mainly starch, while the rotting fruit has turned into sugar. At least, this is how I see it. Usually I think of ripening and rotting as two sequential processes. First it ripens, then it rots. Therefore, starch turning into sugar parallels ripening and rotting.

Yet later on it says that a rotted fruit will have starch and the iodine will be dark, while a light iodine color indicates that most of the starch is gone into sugar. (and implied ripe)

So I'm a little confused as to which way it is. Does the ripening fruit or the rotting one have a lot of starch? - ellusion - (talk) 09:14, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

An unripe fruit has high a high starch content. The ripening process converts these starches to sugars, so a ripe fruit tastes sweet. Some low-sugar fruits will begin to "rot" at this stage, as molds, insects, and bacteria break down the fruit into humus. But, many fruits with a higher sugar content will begin to ferment instead. Wild yeasts and bacteria settle down in the ripe fruits, consuming the sugar and producing ethanol and CO2. Thus, at this stage we get another food product, alcoholic beverages. James Monroe (talk) 05:50, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Ah, thank you for that explanation. So a fruit that is ripening will be converting starch -> sugar. The fruit at "peak" ripeness will be mostly sugar. The rotting fruit is then being turned into humus or alcohol.

So as I understand it, a fruit still ripening will turn dark with an iodine drop. A fully ripe fruit should in theory then remain yellow. Does this sound correct? - ellusion - (talk) 06:54, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

That seems to make sense, although I don't know that every ripe fruit converts 100% of the starch to sugars. See Iodine test. James Monroe (talk) 22:21, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for the clarity. :) - ellusion - (talk) 06:06, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

Ripening on/off the vine; climacteric vs. non-climacteric ripening

I came here trying to find out which fruits ripen on the vine and off the vine. I recall a passage from How to read a french fry classifying fruits into according to whether they could ripen only before picking, only after, or both. Unfortunately, I can't find my copy at the moment. From Google books I found in What Einstein told his Cook 2 [2] a passage discussing the difference between climacteric and non-climatcteric fruit. This doesn't seem to be quite the same distinction, but it appears well studied, for example here [3] which includes an extensive table.

From various sources, it appears that in general

• Berries, melons and pineapples, among others, only ripen before picking
• Many fruits, for example bananas and tomatoes are deliberately picked unripe, shipped and then ripened with ethylene or other agents, as noted in the article
• A few, notably avocados, ripen only after picking

Since the actual picture is more complex and may depend on factors such as which exact variety is involved, I'm reluctant to put such a statement in the article, but at least it's a start.

Not surprisingly, some cookbooks include summaries of fruit ripening [4] [5] —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dmh (talk • contribs) 17:50, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Overripeness

I've been looking around for a page on overripeness and this is the closest one I found. It occurred to me today that I really have no idea what actually makes fruit overripe, and would like to find out. Is there anyone who can add a section on mechanisms of overripeness and what that actually means on a molecular level? ~rezecib ^(talk) 17:02, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

This article needs to explain/include the chemical processes that occur during ripening (what chemicals are involved and what happens during the ripening process), and possibly images of the chemicals involved. I'm wondering if anyone from WikiProject Chemistry can help out. - M0rphzone (talk) 06:16, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Ethylene not emitted?

There is the sentence

Ethylene is not emitted by the plant naturally, and cannot activate the ripening of nearby fruits, rather, it is used as a hormone within the plant.

I disagree. Ethylene is used by plants to communicate often, especially after some danger (herbivores etc.) TH 15:58, 2 February 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.194.65.113 (talk)

Confusing sentence

"Cold slows, and heat increases, fruit ethylene production" is a confusing sentence in the article — Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.213.66.175 (talk) 14:42, 25 April 2012 (UTC)

I've removed that whole section added by OtterStenwick since it's written in a how-to style and sourced with an unreliable source. Here's a rewrite of his sentence: "cold temperatures slow down ethylene production while hot temperatures increases producion". - M0rphzone (talk) 03:48, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Article is not about "Ripening."

This article does not talk about or explain what ripening *is.* It describes properties of fruit which change as a result of ripening; and it discusses certain agents which accelerate the process. That is not the same as explaining the process of ripening; which, it seems clear, should be the main purpose of the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.199.204.112 (talk) 08:50, 3 November 2012 (UTC)

The introduction contradicts the body

In the intro,

"Even though the acidity of fruit increases as it ripens, the higher acidity level does not make the fruit seem tarter. This is attributed to the Brix-Acid Ratio."

with no citation.
In the body,

"Acids are broken down in ripening fruits"

with citation #8.
A quick Google search also yields . An excerpt from that book,

"During the ripening process the fruit acids are degraded..."

which would suggest that the final two lines in the intro are wrong.

Bookwyrm404 (talk) 09:52, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

I am a biologist and want to clarify these contradictions so perhaps someone can fix the page (new to editing pages, so don't want to ruin anything and frankly repairing this error will take some time). Not only does this page need fixed, but so does the page Ripeness_in_viticulture for the same contradictions. Here is a more credible source for clarification:

Relevant information from that article:

[Abstract] Citrus are among the most relevant sources of vitamin C (ascorbic acid + dehydroascorbic acid). Recent studies have revealed that it increases in the peel as fruit ripens and remains constant or even decreases in the pulp tissue. Moreover, important differences on ascorbic acid content exist among citrus varieties in both tissues.

So there are MANY different acids both forming and degrading simultaneously. For a much more in depth analysis, here is a chapter from a plant science book on a university website that provides much more detail about these various acids:

The take-home (my paraphrasing follows) is that the sentence about the Brix-Acid Ratio is the most correct - some acids are broken down, but many are also created. However, a fruit will not taste more "tart" (aka acidic) as it ripens because it is simultaneously also increasing the overall sweetness of the fruit due to the breakdown of starch and pectin (and other polysaccharides) into simple sugars. The amount of sugar created "overcomes" the acid ultimately and the human palate primarily picks up on the sweetness. The Brix-Acid Ratio originated and primarily was created to help wine blenders find the "sweet spot" in terms of the right ripeness to pick the grape depending on the flavors the blender desired. Clarifying this should alleviate any contradiction. 2601:805:C004:E090:8E3:4C44:A136:886F (talk) 13:39, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

References