| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,100,000)
Fiscal Year 1996: ¥400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000)
Fiscal Year 1995: ¥1,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Process-cherry production in Japan is about 4,000t/year. All of these are harvested by hand picking. Because of the problem of shortage of laborers, a mechanical harvesting has been desired.
In 1994, we tried to harvest cherry fruits by shaking small limbs of cherry trees using commercial Japanese apricot shakers. Then many stalkless fruits were induced.
In 1995, we modified the shaker so that it may generate a larger stroke (8cm) and field test was conducted. The results obtained showed that the fruits harvesting percentage was high and most of the dropped fruits were with their stalks. The products, obtained by processing immediatly after harvesting, were with little damage.
In 1996, we transfered a large stroke generating case to the bottom of the boom and set the clamp instead of the hook at the tip of the boom, thereby a single man could perform harvesting operations consistently.
In field test, it was found that a mechanical harvesting should be done in pre-stage of maturity, the vibration generated by the shaker could hardly be transmitted to the slender limb and the bark hardly was damaged during the harvesting operations.
A vibrating test and a pulling test were carried out in order to investigate the detachable properties of cherry fruits. In the vibrating test with 6 to 8 cm of stroke, fruits with stalk were obtained. But the stalkless fruits were resulted from the system which had many fruits and leaves per the spur. In the pulling test, the detachment force between spur and stalk (SS force) was lower than that between stalk and fruit (SF force), as the fruit mass was smaller. But when the mass became larger, SF force was about one third of SS force. As a cherry fruit was pulled in the opposite direction of stalk, the detachment force became extremely low.
By improving the pruning and training methods of branches and the methods of cultivation, the vibrational process-cherry harvesting will be able to be used practically.
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