Fruit mechanical harvesting

Sampling can be as simple as picking fruit from a tree and digging potatoes from the ground or as complex as harvesting with a mechanical harvester. Samples should be harvested is such a way as to prevent bias in the samples (OPPTS 860.1500, p. 2). 

Mechanical harvesting. Efforts to develop systems to mechanically harvest citrus fruits, particularly oranges, have been in progress for several years. Usually, these systems have been developed to handle fruit destined for processed as opposed to fresh utilization. Some efforts, however, have been made to... 

An active abscission research program for citrus has been underway for a number of years in Florida by the Florida State Citrus Commission in collaboration with a number of chemical companies. This program was initiated originally because of a shortage of labor for handpicking citrus. Chemicals to speed up the removal of fruit by mechanical harvesters and to increase... 

Ethephon has received the most attention for use in loosening fruit as an aid to mechanical harvesting. Various degrees of success have been obtained using ethephon on olives (78, 79, 80), blueberries 81), cherries 82-86), plums (87), peaches (88, 89), and apples (90, 91, 92, 93). The initial visible fruit response is an increase in coloration, but higher concentrations do result in abscission of the fruit. 

Until the recent recession, the economic value of cycloheximide was usually associated with the development of air-harvesting equipment. In 1973 a portion of the Florida crop was never picked because hand labor was unavailable. The forecasts for 1974 and 1975 indicated that mechanical harvesting was a must if the industry was to survive. The recession hit, and farm labor became more available. Instead of decreasing in importance, cycloheximide actually grew because the eflBciency of hand-labor picking was significantly improved. As a result, the importance of fruit loosening took on another dimension for the citrus industry. 

When you re purchasing the fresh produce, you will typically find two blueberry sizes, representing two distinct but related species the smaller, pea-size, low-bush variety, which was cultivated from original wild plants of Atlantic Canada and northern forest understories and the grape-size, American highbush species, which was developed specifically to yield larger fruit on taller bushes, making the crop easier to pick with mechanical harvesters. 

The most difficult and labour-intensive operation in the growing of castor was for many years and still is that of harvesting. Although newer dwarf-sized cultivars with dehiscent fruits enable mechanized harvesting, fruit collection and de-hulling is mainly done manually from wild or naturalized plants by women and children. 

The strategy we adopted for attacking our problem, i.e., the complete understanding of the stereoregulation mechanism in the stereospecific polymerization reaction, has been successfully applied to the stereospecific polymerization of acetaldehyde and propylene oxide. The same strategy should be applicable also to other types of catalysts and monomers, even if the difficulty encountered in the experimental performance is greater. The fruitful harvest must await future investigation. 

Packaging. Techniques used in packaging and transporting citrus fruits influence fruit quality. The package and/or container must protect the fruit from mechanical damage and provide a favorable microclimate for the fruit if quality is to be maintained from harvest to consumption. Various reviews on the subject of packaging and transporting citrus have been published previously (250, 268, 290, 291., 292, 293, 294). Therefore, only the major aspects as well as recent developments not previously reviewed will be discussed here. 

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