| Popis: |
Muscadine grapes (Vitis rotundifolia) have become a more attractive alternative crop for Mississippi farmers. However, due to a high initial investment for vineyard establishment, most of the vineyards are of small acreage. The present, over-the-row, mechanical grape harvesters are too large and are not practical for small vineyards. This article presents the design, construction, and field test of a small harvester suitable for harvesting muscadine grapes in medium and small vineyards. The harvest efficiency of the second generation harvester was above 95% at about 0.28 ha/h (0.7 acre/h) harvesting rate. |
