From The Harvester, November 1969

FLORIDA SCIENTISTS STUDY NEW TOMATO HARVESTER

University of Florida researchers worked on developing a mechanical harvester for tomatoes in the late 1960s. The Harvester featured an update on their progress in its November 1969 issue. Click here to see larger image.

A new, experimental tomato harvester, which will satisfactorily harvest tomatoes for the fresh market, is being developed and tested by engineers under a University of Florida research project.

The experimental harvester was developed by Dr. Norman C. Hayslip, Indian River Field Laboratory, Ft. Pierce, and Dr. W. W. Deen, Jr., assistant agricultural engineer at the Everglades Experiment Station, Belle Glade.

The research team of University of Florida scientists is headed by Dr. Herbert Bryan at the Sub-Tropical Experiment Station in Homestead. Dr. Deen is in charge of mechanical development.

Deen states, "We have had some encouraging results with this machine, but we still have several developmental aspects to complete."

The harvester was field tested in Ft. Pierce last June and will again be field tested in Ft. Pierce in the fall and in Dade County this winter. Field tests are scheduled in the spring in either the Ft. Pierce or Immokalee area.

The research team also works with developers of harvesters of tomatoes for processing in helping them evaluate their machines' potential use in the Florida fresh market industry.

Development of new varieties of tomatoes that can be harvested by machine is also a phase of the harvester development program. Most of this work is being conducted by Dr. James W. Strobel, plant pathologist and head of the Gulf Coast Experiment Station, Bradenton.

Florida's tomato industry hopes that ideas and refinements discovered from the Florida project will be utilized by commercial manufacturers and adopted to their machines to put a satisfactory commercial harvester for fresh harvest on the market.