Shake Harvesting Trials with Fresh Market Apples

Download or read book Shake Harvesting Trials with Fresh Market Apples written by A.G. Berlage and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The objective of this research was to develop a mechanical harvesting system capable of reducing the number of workers required while maintaining an acceptable level of harvest damage on Red Delicious apples. low profile, self propelled, catching frames were designed and constructed. a fruit handling system was developed with the capability of delivering the shake harvested apples from the catching surface to the field bin with minimal damage. the equipment was field tested on Red and Golden Delicious apple trees located at the Tree Fruit Research Center in Wenatchee, Washington. machine harvest was 3.2 times faster than hand. the fruit catching and handling part of the system did essentially no damage to Red Delicious apples. Red Delicious harvest cullage averaged 14.2%.