Modified Over-the-Row Machine Harvesters to Improve Northern Highbush Blueberry Fresh Fruit Quality

Lisa Wasko DeVetter, Wei Qiang Yang, Fumiomi Takeda, Scott Korthuis and Changying Li
Additional contact information
Lisa Wasko DeVetter: Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center, Department of Horticulture, Washington State University, 16650 State Route 536, Mount Vernon, WA 98273, USA
Wei Qiang Yang: North Willamette Research and Extension Center, Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University, 15210 NE Miley Road, Aurora, OR 97002, USA
Fumiomi Takeda: United States Department of Agriculture, 2217 Wiltshire Road, Appalachian Fruit Research Station, Kearneysville, WV 25430, USA
Scott Korthuis: Oxbo International Corporation, 270 Birch Bay Lynden Road, Lynden, WA 98264, USA
Changying Li: College of Engineering, University of Georgia, 200 D.W. Brooks Drive, Athens, GA 30602, USA

Agriculture, 2019, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Improved blueberry mechanical harvesting (MH) equipment that maintains fresh market quality are needed due to rising costs and decreasing availability of laborers for harvesting by hand. In 2017, a modified over-the-row (OTR) blueberry harvester with experimental catch surfaces and plates designed to reduce fruit bruising was evaluated. The catch surfaces were made of neoprene (soft catch surface; SCS) or canvas (hard catch surface; HCS) and compared to hand-picked fruit (control). Early- and early/mid-season ‘Duke’ and ‘Draper’, respectively, were evaluated in Oregon, while late-season ‘Elliott’ and ‘Aurora’ were evaluated in Washington. Harvested berries were run through commercial packing lines with fresh pack out recorded and bruise incidence or fresh fruit quality evaluated during various lengths of cold storage. The fresh pack out for ‘Duke’ and ‘Draper’ were 83.5% and 73.2%, respectively, and no difference was noted between SCS and HCS. ‘Duke’ fruit firmness was highest among MH berries with SCS, but firmness decreased in storage after one week. Firmness was highest among hand harvested ‘Draper’ followed by MH with SCS. For ‘Elliott’ and ‘Aurora’, fruit firmness was the same across harvesting methods. ‘Draper’ exhibited more bruising than ‘Duke’, but bruise ratings and the incidence of bruising at ≤10% and ≤20% were similar between hand and MH ‘Draper’ with SCS after 24 h of harvest. ‘Aurora’ berries had similar bruise ratings after 24 h between hand harvesting and MH with SCS, while ‘Elliott’ showed more bruise damage by MH with both SCS and HCS than hand harvested fruit. Although our studies showed slightly lower fresh market blueberry pack outs, loss of firmness, and increased bruise damage in fruit harvested by the experimental MH system compared to hand harvested fruit, higher quality was achieved using SCS compared to HCS. We demonstrated that improved fresh market quality in northern highbush blueberry is achievable by using modified OTR harvesters with SCS and fruit removal by either hand-held pneumatic shakers or rotary drum shakers.

Keywords: harvest mechanization; hand-held shaking device; shaking equipment; fresh fruit quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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