MECHANICAL HARVESTING REGIMES FOR PROCESSING BELL PEPPER PRODUCTION in OHIO

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: Brad Bergefurd, Extension Agent, OSU Extension

Mark Bennett, Vegetable Specialist, Horticulture

COOPERATORS: Thom Harker, Research Assistant, OSU Extension Enterprise Center

Mandy Wilson, Summer Assistant, OSU Extension Enterprise Center

Dwayne Taylor, Summer Assistant, OSU Extension Enterprise Center

ABSTRACT:

Harvest labor costs account for about 50 % of the costs of red bell pepper production, not to mention the legal work and record keeping requirements involved with employing harvest crews. Some manufactures have developed mechanical harvesters to perform a "once over" harvest of peppers. A "once over" machine harvest pulls the plant out of the ground and shakes the fruit off the plant. The mechanical harvesters seem to harvest a high quality Capsicum pepper crop in other areas of the United States, but no information is available as to scheduling a machine harvest pepper crop in Ohio. Objectives of this trial were to determine whether machine harvesting techniques could be used by Ohio processing pepper growers.

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Planting: Greenhouse grown plug plants were transplanted to the field using a Mechanical Transplanter on May, 22 1997 at Hillsboro, Ohio.

Spacing: 20 foot plot rows were 5 feet apart, with plants set into twin rows on raised beds at

12 " spacing between plants in the row and 16" spacing between double rows.

Soil Type: Haubstadt Silt Loam

Fertilizer: Applied 120 lbs. N , 120 lbs. P2O5 and 120 lbs. K2O per acre prior to planting according to soil test recommendations. 20-20-20, (1 lb. /100 gal. , 8 oz. per plant w/ transplant water).

Weed Control: 1.75 pt. / Acre Treflan 4E pre plant incorporated on May 20^th, 1997. Hand hoed and cultivated as necessary.

Pest Management: 1.3 lb. / A Orthene 75S on 7/17, 8/1, 8/12, 8/26 and 9/10.

Irrigation: None

Harvests: 9/17 - 1st harvest, 10/3 - 2nd harvest

* Thanks to the Ohio Vegetable and Small Fruit Research and Development Program for a grant to accomplish this research.

RESULTS:

During the Annual Horticulture Field Night on August 18 in Hillsboro, Ohio, McDonnal Harvester & Parts, Inc. demonstrated to over 100 participants how a PIK RITE Mechanical Harvester, would perform a "Once Over" mechanical harvest on a red bell pepper crop. The harvester with a few minor adjustments and despite a one inch rainfall prior to the demonstration did an overall good job with harvesting the pepper crop. Results of this Mechanical Harvester demonstration indicate that 1) a "Once Over" Mechanical Harvest of a Bell Pepper crop is possible 2) the Harvester will need to be modified slightly to reduce damage to fruit 3) the harvester did a good job of gathering all fruit into the harvester and separating it from the plant 4) a color sorter may need to be modified for peppers to separate green and red peppers into separate conveyors or hand separated at the grading shed, for different markets or a market will need to be established which accepts mixed color loads. 5) Once an efficient harvester is identified an economic analysis will need to be done to see if a mechanical harvest is economically feasible for a grower compared to a traditional hand harvest. From this demonstration we will continue to look at this and other types of harvesters for future demonstrations at Field Days.

1997 was the second year for this Mechanical Harvest Pepper trial. Planting conditions were good in 1997, however, at bloom and fruit set a mild dry spell resulted in a delayed and reduced fruit set. These plots were not irrigated. Also an earlier than normal freeze damaged plants on the evening of October 2^nd resulting in only two pepper harvests, one less harvest than normal. Also the 1997 growing season was one of the coolest on record for Ohio. All of these conditions combined resulted in overall reduced plant yield.

Two hybrid varieties of bell pepper (Merced & X3R Camelot), both common varieties grown by processing pepper growers throughout Ohio, were selected for this trial. * Two different harvesting treatments were selected for this trial including: 1) a traditional selected hand harvest schedule (2 harvests) 2) once over machine simulated harvest only. Due to the early freeze, only 2 harvests were made on treatment 1.

First and Second year results determine that a machine harvest treatment may be feasible for Ohio Processing Pepper growers. Highest red and green pepper yield, for both varieties in 1997 was the traditional selected hand harvest schedule (2 harvests) treatment . However the total red and green pepper yield for the once over harvest is not significantly different from the traditional hand harvest. Cull tons were greater for treatment 1 than in treatment 2 for both varieties however these differences were not significantly different. Each treatment was replicated four times in a scientific replicated block design.

Table 1: MECHANICAL HARVEST PROCESSING PEPPER TRIALS; Hillsboro, Ohio Merced Variety:

Table 2 : MECHANICAL HARVEST PROCESSING PEPPER TRIALS ; Hillsboro, Ohio X3R Camelot Variety:

Table 3: Weather data for the 1997 growing season:

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