December 2010 Issue

Mechanical thinner for green peaches

Rotating, vibrating spiked drum removed many excess peaches and reduces hand-thinning costs.

The Bin Bandit hauls bins during the harvest season, and a platform sits on it for use in thinning, pruning, and tree training. Todd Furber jumped on an idea when he saw a prototype fruit harvester at a field day in Pennsylvania, and, adding some ingenuity, he turned it into an efficient mechanical thinner for the peaches he grows for processing. The rotating, vibrating, spiked-drum harvester was developed by Dr. Donald Peterson, now retired, a U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher at the Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, West Virginia. The harvester is now being used to harvest citrus fruit […]

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December 1, 2010

Production, New Developments, Stone fruits, Technology and equipment, Richard Lehnert

Richard Lehnert

After growing up on a Michigan dairy farm, Richard Lehnert began writing about farming in 1962, while still a junior studying journalism at Michigan State University. He worked at newspapers for a year before joining the staff of Michigan Farmer, where he spent 26 years, the last 15 as chief editor. He was a member of the staff of Good Fruit Grower from 2010 until 2015. Read his stories: Story Index

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