Production Practices and Quality Assessment of Food Crops. Vol. 1

282 M. Ruiz-Altisent et al.
Harvesting platforms
Which can be self-propelled or tractor-pulled. They carry 8–15 workers for the
wrapping, size grading and box filling, are often used for lettuce harvesting. Width:
5–14 m; speed: 0.1–1.5 km/h; power: 20–45 kW. The same type of platforms are
often used for harvesting products like: cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, melons,
pineapples. Fruits can be either prepared, sized and boxed in the platform, as
described for lettuce, or just conveyed to bins or trailers for bulk transportation to
the plant (simple platforms, Table 4 and Figure 18). Work capacity is substantially
increased with these aids (20–100%). In general, harvesting aids result in only
moderate increases in productivity, as workers capacity is very interdependable
(Ruiz-Altisent, 1989). Table 4 shows values of work capacity of harvest aids and
harvesters for different vegetables.
Man positioners for harvesting tree fruits
These are one-man platforms, self-propelled, which can be used both for picking
and for pruning fruit trees. Work capacity is not greatly improved (Ruiz-Altisent,
1989; Ortiz-Cañavate et al., 1994; Moser, 1984) as compared to the investment
needed. They can be appropriate for small orchards devoted to quality fruit where
no high-efficiency equipment is justified.
Table 4. Working capacities of mechanical aids and harvesters for some vegetables.
Machine type Capacity
Mechanical aids
Lettuce Platforms, simple 1.5–2 × hand-harvest capacity
Platforms, self-propelled 25,000 heads/d
Cauliflower Interrow platform 100–200 heads/man h
Selective harvester 300–400 heads/man h
Artichoke Platform, simple 300–350 heads/man h
Celery Platform, simple 1.5–2 × hand-harvest capacity
Pepper Platform, simple 120–210 kg/man h
Pickling cucumbers Man-carrier 14 m-w 300 kg/h
Root crops Platform tractor trailed 100 kg/h
Harvesters
Cabbage One-row 1000–1300 kg/h
Celery One-row 3000–5000 plants/h
Green beans Trailed, one-row 2000–2500 kg/h
Front picker, 2–3 m wide 6000–10,000 kg/h
Green peas Front picker, 3 m wide 1500 kg/h
Picking cucumbers Self-propelled, 2 m wide 3500 kg/h
Green onions Self-propelled, 1–2 m wide 2500–3500 kg/h
Root crops Trailed, self-propelled per row 3500 kg/h
Tomato, industry One-row, manual selection (8–10 workers
• Trailed 3000–4000 kg/h
• Self-propelled 5000–6000 kg/h
• Self-propelled, optical selection 6000–8000 kg/h
Pepper, industry One-row, trailed 500 kg/h