April 15, 2016
CapitalPress.com
17
Researcher investigates less
labor-intensive cherry systems
By DENISE RUTTAN
For the Capital Press
An Oregon State Universi-
ty horticulturist is developing
improved cherry varieties on
rootstock in combination with
training systems that reduce the
size of the trees and thus require
less labor.
Lynn Long,
based in Wasco
County, said the
research has its
roots in a histor-
ical trajectory. In
the 1970s, cher-
ry orchards con- Lynn Long
sisted of giant
trees commonly harvested on
22-foot ladders. Fast forward
to the 1990s, when growers
began utilizing shorter, more
densely growing trees. What is
new is the ever-shrinking labor
pool, which has driven grow-
ers to become more interested
in dwarfing rootstocks and in-
creasingly dense orchards.
“We wanted to try to reduce
the amount of time it took to
pick an acre of cherries,” Long
said. “By doing this, we relieve
some of the pressure on grow-
ers to find pickers who may not
be there in the future.”
Part of why workers are so
hard to come by has to do with
the labor intensive nature of the
harvest of this particular crop.
To pluck a juicy, ripe cherry
from a bushy branch, workers
must typically climb a tall lad-
der to reach them.
“When you put pickers on
ladders, it reduces their pro-
ductivity by almost half,” Long
said. “They have to set up the
ladder, climb up the ladders,
and reach for the fruit. Lad-
ders increase the potential for
accidents because pickers have
to be higher off the ground.
Pickers having both feet on the
ground increases their produc-
tivity and reduces the risks for
both the worker and the grow-
er.”
Training the tree to a short-
er height means growers use
less labor. So Long and other
Courtesy of Lynn Long
These cherry trees have been grown using a training system that
allows them to be harvested from the ground.
researchers have investigated
the performance of three main
types of these training systems.
One of these training sys-
tems was developed by Wash-
ington State University and
is called the Upright Fruiting
Offshoots system, known more
commonly by the slightly spa-
cier term, the UFO training
system. This system involves
training the trees on a wide trel-
lis.
“It’s a system where no
branch hangs down, and it’s an
upright system so that it has a
free fall for the fruit,” Long
said. “If a branch is shaken,
fruit can come down into a
catch basin without impacting
the quality of the fruit. This is
one of the systems developed to
be able to automate the harvest.
We looked at machines to help
automation of the harvest and
consumer acceptance of cher-
ries picked with machines.”
The harvest can be auto-
mated to a great extent, but it
depends on the training system,
Long said. Fruit quality is im-
perative for cherry growers, so
a cherry dropping from the tree
cannot be bruised and battered.
24 - 80 hp.,
4 wheel drive
Compact
Synchro-
Shuttle
Hydro 24, 28,
35, 47 hp
Model 4020R
SERIES
3120R 4020R
3520R 4525R
3510H 4720H
6640 8050
BRANSON BOSS 800 UTV’s:
Two-or-Four door models have
60hp and speeds up to 58mph.
• Front Winch
• 14” Wheels with 27” Tires
• Hard Doors & Roof • Top Mount LED Light Bar
• Electric Dump Bed
THE TRACTOR STORE
(541) 342-5464
5450 W. 11 th , Eugene, OR
www.capitalpress.biz/hosted/tractorstore
ONV16-1/#5
ONV16-1/#7