vegetable Section MECHANIZATION AFTER MACHINE HARVESTING OF CELERY AND SNAP BEANS

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1 0 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 968 vegetable Section MECHANIZATION AFTER MACHINE HARVESTING OF CELERY AND SNAP BEANS R. K. Showalter Department of Food Science University of Florida Gainesville Abstract Increased quantities of Florida celery and snap were mechanically harvested during the past year with improved types of machines. Machines were also used for celery topping, ele vating, transporting, sizing and crate closing. To assist in mechanizing the hand stripping of celery, petiole removal was measured. With hand harvesting, stripping and topping in 9 com mercial fields in 968, to 4 percent of the total stalk weight was removed. Machine har vesting and topping plus hand stripping removed 46 to 5 percent of the stalk weight. Greater quantities of trash, immature and broken were found in 5 lots of machine harvested than in harvested by hand in the same 5 fields. Grading of machine-har vested removed most of the leaves and stems, but not the broken. A machine sizer with small rod spacing did not remove the immature. Sizer modification and addi tional sorting will be needed to pack machineharvested that are equal in quality to those from hand harvests. Celery Introduction Celery harvesting and handling involves many operations from stalk cutting to loading for shipment. One new harvesting system uses a one-row harvester that cuts off the tops, cuts the stalks from the roots, and elevates the stalks Florida Agricultural Experiment Stations Journal Series 4. into a truck traveling beside the harvester. The celery is transported to a stripping unit in the field, and then conveyed to a stationary muletrain for packing. Another harvesting system combines machine cutting with packing in a central packinghouse. Weight and diameter sizing machines are used to replace hand selec tion of similar sized stalks, and automatic ma chines are used for closing crates and cartons. ed celery stalks vary greatly in size and shape, but they have the characteristics which buyers want if the stalks are properly topped, stripped, sized and packed. With the new one-row harvesters, the stalks are machine topped to 6 inch lengths at the time the roots are cut, and some small outer petioles are knocked off by a small rotor. All stalks are hand stripped and packed. A machine for removing all unwanted petioles from the stalks would automate one of the last stages needed for a completely mechanized harvesting and packing system. This study was made to determine what amount of the celery stalk had to be removed to meet the requirements of the U. S. grade, and what amount is removed by the par tially mechanized harvesting system. Snap Beans Snap bean harvesters utilizing steel fingers and nylon brushes in rotating picking reels stripped the pods and leaves from the stems. Beans and trash not removed by a cleaning fan were loaded into bags and transported to the sizing and grading facilities in the field or a packinghouse where removal of small and broken was a major problem. Maturity is a very important quality factor for snap. A once-over harvest includes immature which wilt rapidly. These should be sorted out on the basis of pod diameter. Re volving, rod type sizers remove variable amounts

SHOWALTER: MECHANIZATION AFTER HARVESTING of small pods. Conventional bean grading equip ment and hand graders are used to remove leaves, stems, weeds, defective and other foreign matter.

2 SHOWALTER: MECHANIZATION AFTER HARVESTING of small pods. Conventional bean grading equip ment and hand graders are used to remove leaves, stems, weeds, defective and other foreign matter. This study was made to determine the differ ences in characteristics of hand and machine harvested and the adequacy of present grading practices for machine-harvested. Celery Experimental Methods Nine lots of celery each consisting of 00 stalks of the variety, were hand cut in fields of commercial growers in the Ever glades area during January, April and May, 968. Stalks of all sizes were selected at random locations and weighed in the field immediately after cutting. These stalks were reweighed after careful hand stripping and topping to 6 inches. Weights were also obtained on 6 lots of ma chine-harvested celery in fields of growers using one-row harvesters equipped with topping saws and small stripping devices. The additional weight of celery removed by stripping room crews was also measured. Snap Beans The amounts of trash, immature and broken were measured for hand and machine har vesting at five farms on the lower East Coast where growers were harvesting snap by both methods in the same field at the same time. One hundred pounds of from each har vesting method were carefully sorted before commercial grading during April and May, 968. Four of the paired lots were er variety and paired lot was Provider. The leaves, stems and broken were sorted out by hand and the immature were removed by a revolving sizer with rods spaced % inch apart. Trash, im mature and broken bean measurements were also made on 6 lots of machine-harvested Sprite variety before and after commercial grading. Celery Results and Discussion Celery harvesters are satisfactorily cutting both end of the stalks to the desired lengths, but equipment is not available for stripping them to the desired diameter. In order for celery to grade U.S., the thin, short, spindly, diseased, discolored or otherwise defective outer petioles must be removed. Additional non-defec tive petioles are usually removed according to traditional stripping practices in order to pro duce more compact, cylindrically shaped stalks, or to reduce larger sized stalks to smaller sizes that may have greater market demand. weights per 00 stalks of handharvested celery ranged from to 450 pounds (Table ). Stalk weights averaged.75 pounds, and an average of 6 percent or nearly pound was removed in stripping. An additional percent of the harvest weight was removed in topping the stalks to 6 inches. The average of 7 percent (range -4) total stripping and topping in the 9 commercial fields of variety compares with 9 percent in a previous test (), and 8 to 46 percent trimmings for the 5-70 variety (). Measurements of stalk weights of 6 lots after machine harvesting, topping, partial stripping and transporting to the packing facilities showed an average weight decrease of per cent (Table ) based on the harvest weight of hand-harvested lots from the same fields. Hand stripping by commercial crews reduced the stalk weights an additional 6 percent. The combina tion of machine-harvested, hand-stripped celery resulted in an average weight reduction of 48 percent compared with 7 percent for nonmechanized harvesting and trimming. This re duction of almost 0.5 pound of market weight per stalk might be considered as a decrease in market value and an increase in waste disposal. However, there is a considerable volume of stripped petioles being shipped to food proces sing plants. Official statistics do not show the quantity of Florida celery used for processing, but the demand is growing, and stripped outer petioles may provide a good outlet for surplus fresh market production. Snap Beans Machine and hand-harvested differed mostly in quantities of immature and broken. In the 4 fields of the er variety, immature averaged. percent from hand picking and 6.6 percent from machine harvesting (Table ). Broken averaged. percent for hand and 4.5 percent for machine harvesting. The machine-harvested Provider variety had. percent broken which was much hi^hor than in any lots of the er variety. The trash and defects in 6 lots of machineharvested of the Sprite variety averaged

3 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 968 Table Weight decrease of celery stalks after hand harvesting, stripping and topping. Lot month weight Stalk stripping Stalk topping Total and stripping topping Pounds. Jan April May Each lot = 00 stalks.. percent when delivered to the sizing and grading facilities. The were passed through a sizer 9 feet long x inches in di ameter with /6 inch rod spacing. The were then sorted on a conventional bean grader with 4 people picking out leaves and stems and 0 people grading. A second series of bean samples, ready for packing, were taken at the end of the grading belt. When the were sized and carefully sorted in the same manner as the samples taken before commercial grading, it was found that most of the leaves and stems had been removed (Table 4). However, very few, if any imma ture and broken had been removed. The /6 inch spaces between the rods of the sizer were too small, and the were conveyed through the sizer in a layer so deep that many never had an opportunity to drop between the rods. Broken were not removed be cause the graders were busy sorting out other types of defects and selecting with the best appearance for facing the tops of the hampers. Mechanical harvesting of snap is eco nomically feasible (), but the greater quanti-

4 SHOWALTER: MECHANIZATION AFTER HARVESTING Table Weight decrease of celery stalks after machine and hand harvesting and trimming. Grower Lot Weight of 00 stalks and trim treatments Market B B+C Weight decrease Lbs. Lbs & A- Careful hand harvesting, topping and stripping. B- Machine harvesting, topping and partial stripping. C- Hand Stripping by stripping room crew after treatment B. Stalks topped by harvester, total weight not obtainable.

5 4 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 968 Table Trash, immature and broken in hand and machine-harvested snap. Variety method Lot Leaves and Immature Broken Total trash and defects stems er Hand a a a a Machine b b b b Provider Hand 5 a Machine 5 b Each lot = 00 pounds. ties of immature and broken in machine- layer of is present inside at all times, harvested lots make their quality lower than the Automation for removing broken is not yet quality of hand-picked. Immature available. Additional hand sorting and eliminacan be removed by increasing the rod spacing tion and face packing will improve quality and of the sizers to % or 5/6 inches and adjusting uniformity throughout the container, the feeding rate to the sizer so that only a thin

6 SHOWALTER: MECHANIZATION AFTER HARVESTING 5 Table 4 Trash, immature and broken in machine-harvested Sprite snap before and after commercial grading. Lot Leaves stems and Immature Broken Total trash and defects Before grading , After grading Each lot = 0 pounds.

6 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 968 Acknowledgment LITERATURE CITED Appreciation is expressed to Parnell and Associates, Inc., Orlando, Florida for supplying a bean sizer for this study.

7 6 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 968 Acknowledgment LITERATURE CITED Appreciation is expressed to Parnell and Associates, Inc., Orlando, Florida for supplying a bean sizer for this study.. Brooke, D. L. and A. H. Spurlock, 967. Cost of harvesting snap by machine. Florida Agricultural Experiment Stations, Agricultural Economics Mimeo Report EC 68-:4.. Burdine, H. W. and V. L. Guzman Effects of spacing between rows and between plants on growth and yield of three celery varieties. Proc. Fla. State Hort Soc. : Wolf. E. A Florida 68 A Utah-type celery. Florida Agricultural Experiment Stations, Circular S-56:4. FIELD EVALUATION OF FRUIT DETACHMENT OF MACHINE HARVEST TOMATO VARIETIES WITH A PORTABLE SHAKER ElCHARD C. FLUCK Agricultural Engineering Department University of Florida, Gainesville James W. Strobel Gulf Coast Experiment Station, Bradenton Herbert H. Bryan Sub-Tropical Experiment Station, Homestead Abstract Numerous constraints limit achievements in solving a recalcitrant problem such as the me chanical harvesting of fresh-market tomatoes. Among these are the biological limitations in herent in the breeding program limiting the ex tent a new line may differ from the available parentage and the necessary time interval to produce a new crossing. Also there are the en gineering limitations based upon availability of materials and components and the physical feas ibility of a particular combination of components in a machine. A stationary, portable field shaker was used to evaluate several breeding lines in a simultane ous exploration of biological and engineering potentialities. Biological factors explored in cluded the reaction of tomatoes incorporating the jointless characteristic to a shaking action imparted to the vine and the effect of a delay allowing for plant dehydration between cutting Florida Agricultural Experiment Stations Journal Series 5. and shaking the vines. An engineering factor explored was the optimum combination of shaker stroke and frequency resulting in most efficient fruit removal from the vines. Introduction Mechanical harvesting of tomatoes for fresh market consumption is a goal now being pur sued by several research teams. The desired attainment of this goal is made difficult by the inability to predict harvest dates and schedule planting accordingly, the lack of concentration of fruit maturity at a mature green or breaker stage, the inherent difficulties in gathering fruit growing almost at random in a complex matrix of vines, the difficulties in selecting marketable fruit among all picked fruit, and the necessary minimization of fruit injury, to name a few. An interdisciplinary approach is mandatory to solve a problem beset by such complexities. A solution, a workable mechanical harvesting sys tem, must be developed within certain limita tions or constraints, some of which are of a biological nature and some of which are of a physical nature. Examples of biological con straints are the genetic material available to a plant breeder, the tenacity with which a fruit remains attached to the vine, and the ability of the fruit to withstand mechanical induced in jury. Examples of physical constraints are the availability of materials and components for a machine, the feasibility of combining particular available components into a machine, and the minimum velocities required to transport fruit on a machine to obtain an economically feasible harvesting rate.

RESEARCH REPORT SUWANNEE VALLEY AREC 92-5 August, 1992 COMPARISON OF VARIOUS N SCHEDULING METHODS FOR SNAPBEANS

RESEARCH REPORT SUWANNEE VALLEY AREC 92-5 August, 1992 COMPARISON OF VARIOUS N SCHEDULING METHODS FOR SNAPBEANS George Hochmuth 1 Bob Hochmuth 2 Ed Hanlon 3 INTRODUCTION Snapbean is an important crop to