2015 Spring Meeting Florida Blueberry Growers’ Association

CURRENT USDA BLUEBERRY RESEARCH:

* SEASONAL SHADING OF BLUEBERRY PLANTS * MECHANICAL AND HARVEST-AID SYSTEMS FOR FRESH-

MARKET PACK-OUT BLUEBRRY* BLUEBERRY PACKING LINE EVALUATION

Fumiomi TakedaUSDA-ARS Appalachian Fruit Research StationKearneysville, WV 25430

Bartow, FLFeb. 2013

Seasonal, Retractable Shading System for Blueberries in the Southeast

• Cooler plant temperature/Substitute for HC?• Advance bloom, Improve fruit set• Reduce frost damage, Bird predation?• Increase U-Pick customer satisfaction

Scale-Neutral Harvest-Aid System and Sensor Technologies to Improve Harvest Efficiency and Handling of Fresh-Market Highbush Blueberries Project Overview

USDA NIFA competitive grant: Specialty Crop Research Initiative ($2.37 million) 14 PIs from 10 LAND-GRANT UNIVERSITIES and USDA-ARS Multi-state, comprehensive 4-year research/ extension project to develop semi-

mechanical harvesters and sensor technologies to take fresh market blueberry production to next level

3

Objectives 1. Develop high-throughput phenotyping, sensor technologies 2. Design a new semi-mechanical harvest-aid system for efficient

mechanical fruit harvesting for small- and medium-size blueberry farms and with fruit quality for fresh-market pack-out

3. Develop the next-generation berry impact recording sensor and use it to improve harvest and postharvest operations through a critical understanding of mechanical impacts

4

Objectives

4. Determine microbial contamination and criticalcontrol points along the harvest and

postharvest chain with the new harvesting system

5. Conduct economic and ergonomic analyses of new developed harvesting technologies

6. Outreach and technology transfer

HAND-HARVESTED MACHINE-HARVESTED

Hand-harvested blueberries

Fruit dropped from heights > 2 feet

Internal bruise detection using near infrared imaging system

9/27

Band ratio near infrared images (1075/1250 nm) of bruised blueberries (top row) and healthy blueberries (bottom row);

Bruised

• A SWRI hyperspectral imaging system will be used• PCA and minimum noise fraction transform will be used to enhance

features• Band ratio images will be used to enhance bruising feature• Linear Bayesian classifier for classification

Thermal imaging

• Pulsed-phase thermography• Thermal camera (T440, FLIR) 320 x 240• 10 s heat excitation • Frequency, amplitude, and phase delay will be analyzed by fast

Fourier transform using Matlab• Artificial bruising (pendulum); 24h and 48h after bruising

10/27

Bruised

Thermal image of one bruised (right) and one healthy (left) blueberries (Li, Unpublished work).

PACKING HOUSE EVALUATION

12/27

BIRD Sensor: Assembly

3 Accelerometers

Y

BIRD II

CUMULATIVE DROP HEIGHT = ~ 40 in.

Grading Line

SIZER

ELECTRONIC SORTER *

*

*

*

Fruit dropped once from 24-inch height onto padded surface

Fruit dropped 5 times from 6-inch height to hard surface

Objective 2

•Design a new semi-mechanical harvest-aid system for efficient mechanical fruit harvesting for small- and medium-size blueberry farms.

Goal: Machine harvest blueberries without bruising them!

18/27

1. Plant canopy manipulation; 2) Positioning of catcher plates

Alternative Harvester Design: Reduce how far berries drop

Catcher plate design

Padded catcher plate

Various padding products are being evaluated

Drop height (cm)

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Imp

act

(g

)

0

200

400

600

800

1000Plastic r2=0.99No Bruze r2=0.99

(a)?

Putting all the components together:

Multi-Row Harvesting Platform?

Improved fruit removal apparatus Catcher plates that minimize fruit bruising Ergonomic Higher capacity platform harvesting system

Thank you!

Questions?