When I was growing up as a kid we bought much of our fruit at a local market, and the source of the fruit was mostly local. Since most of the fruit was picked locally, I know it was picked ripe, or at least fairly ripe, from the tree. We would bring the fruit home and keep it in the fridge so that it didn’t become overripe too quickly.
I now live far away from where most fruit is grown, and I know that fruit, such as bananas and pineapples, have always come a great distance to get to me. If the fruit was picked ripe and put on a train, truck or ship, it would become overripe by the time it reached me, so I assume they pick it unripe and that it ripens during it’s long journey.
So is fruit that is ripened on a tree any different that fruit that is ripened on a train, truck or ship? I always thought that tree ripened fruit was more nutritious and sweeter than fruit that was picked green… but that may just be a myth.
I know that they have refrigerated trains and trucks and even delicate fruit such as strawberries could probably be picked almost ripe and easily survive a 3 day train ride from coast to coast.
There are 2 basic kinds- climacteric and non-climacteric.
Climacteric fruits are ones that continue to ripen after being picked. Bananas, tomatoes and apples are good examples of climacteric fruits. You can basically pick a green tomato and it’ll eventually ripen completely to red and delicious. Bananas will go from green and starchy to yellow with brown spots and be very sweet and aromatic.
Non-climacteric fruit are ones that do not continue to ripen off the plant. They may change texture with time, but they do not become any sweeter or riper. Examples are pineapples, citrus and grapes. They are as sweet and ripe as they’re going to get when they’re picked, and keeping them around doesn’t really do them any good.
So the answer for your question is that yes, non-climacteric fruits benefit from being on the tree/vine/bush longer, while climacteric fruits can be picked earlier with the expectation that they’ll ripen on the journey.
Now commercial growers do things with climacteric fruit that muddy the waters- they keep them in controlled atmospheres to reduce respiration and remove ethylene gas (what ripens them), and then they saturate them with ethylene at the very end to ripen them up some and change the color before sale- tomatoes especially. But even those will continue to ripen on their own to a degree- store bought tomatoes aren’t at their best when you buy them usually.
I’d bet that the cultivar has a bigger impact on the flavor than the ripening method.
One bit to add to bump’s answer - ethylene is used to hasten ripening because fruits produce it themselves naturally as they ripen. More ethylene, faster ripening. Hence that old saying about one bad (bruised or overripe, that is) apple spoiling the barrel.
When I grew tomatoes in the garden, I was advised top put end-of-season green apples in a paper bag with a ripe apple to speed them toward luscious red tomatoey goodness.
I’m going to perfect a logistics system that picks pineapples nearly ripe and gets them to North America in a timely manner! I can get a freaking $8 motorcycle part from China in 3 days, I should be able to get a pineapple from Costa Rica in about the same amount of time.
The pineapples in my neck of the woods are forest green, and are hurting the hammer industry by acting as competition to their product.
THIS. I was a great connoisseur of field-ripened pineapples (with or without sleeves) when I lived in Hawaii. The juice alone would take the plaque off your teeth, and the excess juice (of which there was plenty) could be used as rust remover or rocket fuel.
In contrast, the pathetic pineapples seen in mainland stores could be mistaken for lumpy cancerous oversized limes, and are inedible.