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Mass Harvesters :: Canker Decontamination

Objective:

Development of on-board canker decontamination for citrus mechanical harvesting systems

Current Work:

The overall goal of this work is to study the means and ways of facilitating and expediting the canker decontamination process for mechanical harvesting systems. The immediate goal is to study the citrus mechanical harvesters and to identify the areas on the mechanical harvesters that tend to collect plant materials and then work with the manufacturers to provide improved designs and adjustments that can reduce the plant material collection on the mechanical harvesting systems.

The tractor drawn continuous canopy shaker, manufactured by OXBO International Corp, Clear Lake, Wisc., was studied by recognizing the areas of the machine where most plant materials are collected and suggestions were provided to the manufacturer. The manufacturer, OXBO, acted on the suggestions and provided covers in order to restrict the collection of plant materials by the harvesting machine. There was a substantial decrease from an average of 8.5 pounds to 2.5 pounds of plant materials. Engineers and scientists of CREC are also undertaking similar studies for canopy shake and catch from the same company.

Figure 10 | Figure 11

The Coe-Collier trunk shake and catch harvesting machine was studied and suggestions were made. After the covering was placed on the frame, the collection of plant materials substantially decreased as shown in the figures below. The modifications on this machine are still occurring. Growers using mechanical harvesting aids can also undertake similar studies on their machines.

Figure 12 | Figure 13 Figure 14 | Figure 15

For more information

Contact:
Reza Ehsani


Visits since 05/21/2014