Mechanical harvester

The seaweed is harvested by raking and hand-gathering. Mechanized harvesting or use of divers has met with limited success. The collected seaweed is dried mechanically in many areas and shipped to the processing plants. 

Harvesting. Except for the cotton gin, the introduction of the mechanical harvester has probably had a greater effect on cotton production than any other single event. Commercial mechanical harvesters were introduced into the United States after World War 11. By 1955, about 23% of the cotton was mechanically harvested. That value had increased to 85% by 1965. In the early 1990s more than 99% of the U.S. cotton crop was mechanically harvested, although cotton was stiH hand harvested in some other countries. 

Once the plant is ready, the cotton is mechanically harvested with either a spindle picker or cotton stripper. The spindle picker selectively harvests seed cotton from open boUs. The unopened boUs are left on the plant and can be picked at a later date. The spindle picker uses a rotating tapered barbed spindle to remove the cotton from the bur (seed case). The seed cotton is wrapped around the spindle, pulled from the bur, removed from the spindle with a mbber doffer, and then transferred to a basket. 

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). 

The industry needs continuous supplies of raw material, which means that it is essential to properly organize the varieties used, planting times, growing zones, mechanical harvesting, transportation, and handling in order to avoid rapid loss of quality after harvesting. Because processing causes complete tissue death, potatoes that are to be processed need to be harvested... 

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... 

In vineyards in California, when horseweed or hairy fleabane is present, simazine is a critical component of preemergence herbicide combinations (Elmore and Donaldson, 2000). If left uncontrolled, these weeds interfere with hand or mechanical harvesting. In California approximately 248000 pounds of simazine were applied to 243 000 A of grape in 2004. 

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... 

Plant growth regulators, whether natural occurring or synthetic have been used commercially since the 1950 s. Their uses have generally been to modify growth, enhance yields of food and fiber, adapt plants to scheduled harvest patterns and make certain crops more adaptable to mechanical harvesting. 

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