Researchers Recommend Soft Touch When Shaking Trees
By Linda Cooke
USDA Agricultural
Research Service
“The operation was a success
but the patient died,” says USDA
Agricultural Research Service
engineer Galen K. Brown,
referring to mechanical har
vesting techniques which are
cutting the productive life of
Michigan’s cherry orchards from
30 to less than 20 years.
Research by ARS and Michigan
State University researchers in
East Lansing focuses on
recognizing and minimizing the
damage machines can do to cherry
tree trunks.
While mechanical harvesting
gave Michigan’s sweet and sour
cherry business a shot in the arm
in the 19605, the change from hand
picking to mechanical harvesting
also brought a serious problem
that can’t be overlooked today.
Mechanical shakers pick 98
percent of Michigan’s sweet and
sour cherry trees. Recent tests
have shown that over two-thirds of
young trees have trunk damage
after the first 3 years of
mechanical harvesting. “If we
want orchards to last 30 years, we
have to reduce the damage,” says
Brown.
Trees both young and old
are being overshaken. Growers
often shake trees four or five times
for a few second at a time. Brown
recommends replacing the several
short shakes with one continuous 5-
to 10-second shake until the
cherries drop onto the canvas or
catcher below.
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grown trees are being used on
young trees that are easy to
damage. Some commercial
shakers briefly apply excessive
movement and force to the bark
when the machines start and stop.
The research team identified ways
to keep this from happening and in
the process invented a controllable
shaker which may soon be com
mercially adopted.
To reduce the damage to young
trees caused by currently used
shakers. Brown and colleagues,
designed a new clamp pad system
that allows safely harvesting
young trees that have trunks as
small as 1.5 inches in diameter.
Besides designing a new pad
system, the scientists have found
better ways to use existing ones.
For example, using a nitrile
covered thin belting over the pads,
silicone' lubricant on the nitrile
surfaces, and less clamping
pressure reduces the forces that
loosen bark during shaking.
“Some commercial clamp pads
applied more than five times the
pressure that the bark can stand
without damage,” says Brown,
who recommends applying no
more than 150 pounds per square
inch to the bark of young sweet or
sour cherry trees.
Cracks and broken bark are
obvious signs of trunk damage, but
damage can be hidden too. Cells
rupture in the cambium layer
where xylem cells become wood
and phloem cells develop into
bark.
Diseases and insects, such as the
American plum borer, a serious
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pest in Michigan, can enter more susceptible to bark damage. Steps to reduce harvest-inflicted
through cracks that may not be “It’s unfortunate that cherries are injuries can be taken now. By
seen until a year after harvest. The harvested in June and July when modifying equipment, training
borer gets into young tree tissue, tree cells are regenerating and personnel, and applying good
reproduces, and the entire colony most vulnerable,’’ says Brown. He management techniques, growers
chews their way around the tree, recommends that growers shut off can extend the productive life of an
says ARS plant pathologist Clyde irrigation at least two weeks orchard by 10 years. “Our goal is
L. Burton. before harvest, then resume after to be able to harvest cherry trees
Wet weather also makes trees harvest.
jrs, suv as this one in use in Michigan, pick cherries quickly and efficiently,
but they can damage trees.
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