Gentle suction mixed with the dependable pull of gravity. That’s the basic principle behind a new way of harvesting apples. In what some would call a transformative system, it was designed to ensure fruit quality, harvest efficiency, better worker conditions, and even food safety.
Besides apples, it can also be used to harvest other fruit such as citrus and peaches.
We’re talking about the Bandit Cyclone, a vacuum-based harvesting system. While still in its trial stage, it’s been proving its worth out in the field. An example of that is when Superfresh Growers, based in Yakima, WA, partnered with Automated Ag, based in Moses Lake, WA, to showcase Automated Ag’s Bandit Cyclone harvest-aid technology.
While out in the field watching the Cyclone in action, J J Dagorret, owner of Automated Ag, quickly said he was "extremely excited to see it in operation at work in an orchard.”
Go here to see the Bandit Cyclone in operation.
It’s nothing like the usual way of harvesting apples, which involves workers on ladders picking the fruit into heavy pickers’ bags. When the bags are full enough, the workers drop the apples into a wooden bins. This requires them to go up and down ladders and reposition the ladders when necessary.
“Physically, it’s very strenuous work,” said Dagorret, adding that falls from ladders account for a lot of worker injuries.
With the Bandit Cyclone, the pickers are up on a platform, which has 4 large suction hoses. They pluck the apples from the trees and then put them into the hoses, where the fruit travels downward until coming to a padded decellerator, which slows the fruit down before it is gently deposited into a wooden bin. From there, the apples are taken into a storage facility.
The air suction pulls fruit through the individual hoses at roughly 15 feet per second for only half a second per apple. “Gentle” is the name of the game.
Compared to handpicking, this new system’s platform, which moves from row to row, is 35 percent more efficient and reduces bruising by half, which gives consumers more consistent fruit.
Considering the challenge of dealing with an aging workforce and finding enough physically able workers to harvest the fruit, Dagorret said this system opens up the labor pool.
“Just about anyone can do it’” he said in an interview with News.com. “It ’s an important advancement. It transforms the way fruit is picked.”
It took 6 years to get it to this point, and Dagorret readily admits to waking up some nights and wondering if he was crazy to stick with it.
“But I’m really happy I did,” he said. “It’s definitely been worth it.”
What about food safety?
Dagorret said he hasn’t run into any food-safety problems with the Bandit Cyclone. To begin with, there’s less handling of the fruit, and the fruit spends less time getting from the tree to the bin than would be the case when it’s picked into a bag where it stays until there are enough apples to put them into a bin.. And the machinery is cleaned on a regular basis.
“We don’t take any shortcuts,” he said.
What about cost?
Dagorret said the entire unit would cost about $125,000 dollars. But the platform can be used year round, for example when workers need to prune the trees.
He said that whereas in the past growers planted about 133 trees to an acre, they now plant 1,300 to 1,400 to an acre. That adds up to the need for advances when it comes to harvesting the fruit. With the Bandit Cyclone, a crew of 4 pickers can fill large orchard bins in just 10 to 15 minutes.
“This will transform the way apples are picked,” Dagorret said. “This will be the future.”
Apple facts
The largest apple-producing state is Washington, whose fertile soil, abundant water resources, and ideal climate makes it the perfect location for apple cultivation. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the state produces more than 60 percent of the country’s total apple crop.
Other significant apple-producing states include New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and California. These states, along with Washington, account for the majority of apple production in the United States. But when looking at who’s on top when it comes to global production, China is the world’s largest apple producer.
