ISHS Acta Horticulturae 293: IX International Symposium on Apricot Culture
MECHANICAL HARVESTING OF APRICOTS |
| Authors: | G. Costa, R. Biasi, F. Succi |
| Abstract:
Mechanical harvesting of apricots has been carried out in Italy since the 70s. At the beginning simple equipment was used, then a harvester prototype for prunes and apricots was designed and its reliability tested in our environments. Despite the positive performance of the harvesters in different orchard conditions, the mechanical harvesting is not widespread in apricot growing. The aim of this work is to report the most recent data of the ICA-BO harvester on cv. San Castrese in terms of harvesting performance, fruit damage, harvesting times and efficiency. Beside this, some economic parameters has been evaluated behind the slow adoption of mechanical harvesting. A comparison to hand harvesting is also reported. | |
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