Harvesting

Sesame matures between 3-4 months. It ripens very unevenly with the bottom seeds ripening first. Capsules shattering to shed their seeds is a problem in harvesting. If harvesting is delayed, most of the yield will be lost.

The plants are cut to a height of 10-15 cm, or uprooted before the capsules are fully ripened. The optimum time for harvesting is when:

• The first, lowest capsules turn brown and begin to pop open
• The stem turns yellow
• The leaves begin to fall off
• Blossoming has finished
• The leaves have turned yellow

Sesame is generally harvested by hand, and then left to dry for the first 2-3 days after cutting in a windrow. The leaves dry out quickly there, making it easier to bundle them into sheaves. The sheaves should be positioned so that the sun can shine down directly onto the capsules. The sheaves should be small (diameter of 15 cm, bottom: 45-80 cm). During harvesting, the planting seeds should not be allowed to come into contact with the ground to avoid an infestation of soil borne diseases. The seed shells must remain intact to protect the seeds from infection, and to maintain their ability to germinate.

When the sheaves have dried out fully, they are tipped out onto sturdy cloths or canvases and threshed with sticks. To achieve maximum quality (and market price) the threshing cloths/canvases should be at least 2mx3m to avoid contamination with soil particles. Directly following the threshing, the sesame seeds are sieved of leaves, stems and capsule residues, and then dried out to a moisture content of 6% as rapidly as possible. This can be done on a clean, sun-drenched concrete base preferably covered by a clean plastic sheet to avoid contamination.

Yields

With good management, yield should be between 450-550 kg/ha. Morada variety can yield twice.

(Source: infonet biovision)