Harvest of Southern Highbush Blueberry with a Modified, Over-the-Row Mechanical Harvester: Use of Soft-Catch Surfaces to Minimize Impact Bruising
| Autor: | Jeffrey G. Williamson, Steven A. Sargent, Adrian D. Berry, Fumiomi Takeda |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Fruit weight Surface type Biology 01 natural sciences 040501 horticulture impact surface Green fruit Fresh market medicine Cultivar packout fruit quality food and beverages Agriculture 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences machine harvest Bruise Horticulture mechanical harvest bruising soft catch surface Current technology medicine.symptom 0405 other agricultural sciences Agronomy and Crop Science 010606 plant biology & botany |
| Zdroj: | Agronomy, Vol 11, Iss 1412, p 1412 (2021) Agronomy Volume 11 Issue 7 |
| ISSN: | 2073-4395 |
| Popis: | Harvest of fresh market, southern highbush blueberries (SHB) is labor intensive and costly, leading to a demand for alternative harvest methods. Recent research has shown potential for mechanically harvesting blueberries with minimal bruising by using a modified over-the-row (OTR) harvester. For two harvests, SHB cultivars Optimus and Vireo were either hand-harvested (HH) or mechanically harvested (MH) by two commercial harvesters, one unmodified with standard hard-catch surfaces (HCS) or by the other modified with soft-catch surfaces (SCS). For Harvest 1, fruit from all harvest methods were hand-sorted into the following categories: blue fruit (marketable), red fruit, green fruit and culls. Samples from each cultivar and treatment were then held at 24 °C overnight, and the following day firmness and impact bruise severity were determined. Harvest 2 had identical harvest treatments however, the fruit were sorted on a commercial packing line prior to packing in clamshells (n = 16). A subsample was held overnight as in Harvest 1 for bruise severity rating, while the remaining fruit were stored at 1 °C for 14 days (d). Although percent marketable fruit was more affected by cultivar than harvest method, determination of bruise severity revealed the benefit of harvest with SCS over HCS for both cultivars. The former had 16–26% severe bruising, compared to 27–40% for the latter HH had 1–4%. During storage, HH fruit remained firmer than HCS and SCS, which were similar. After 14 d, firmness for “Optimus” was 239 N (HH), 157 N (HCS and SCS) and for “Vireo” it was 189 (HH), 155 N (HCS and SCS). Fruit weight loss increased during storage (1.1–4.4%), but there was no difference due to catch plate surface. SSC, TTA and Ratio were not affected by catch surface type or storage period within cultivar. Using modifications such as “soft” catch surfaces on currently available OTR harvesters reduces impact bruise damage however, impacts incurred during commercial packing operations can negate this effect. MH for fresh market blueberries may provide an economical alternative for blueberry growers however, with current technology, the fruit should be utilized within a week of harvest. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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