Effect of Frequency and Vibration Time on Shaker Performance for Mechanized Harvesting of Orange (Thomson cultivar)

Manual citrus harvesting is commonly performing hard, expensive and time consuming. In this study, a factorial experiment with a completely randomized design in three replications was performed to find out the effect of frequency (three levels of 5, 7.5 and 10 Hz), vibration time (three levels of 10, 15 and 20 seconds) on harvesting capacity and losses of Thomson cultivar of orange. The results indicated that the effect of frequency and vibration time was significant (P≤0.01) on the harvesting capacity and losses, but their interaction effects weren’t significant. The harvesting capacity significantly increased by increasing frequency, and the highest harvesting capacity was 62.8 % at 10 Hz frequency. Although the harvesting capacity increased by increasing the vibration time, but there was no significant difference in vibration times between 15 and 20 seconds at 10 Hz frequency. Also the fruit loss was increased by increasing the vibration time. Due to these reasons, frequency of 10 Hz and vibration time of 15 seconds were selected as the most suitable condition for mechanized harvesting of this cultivar of orange. Finally a linear mathematical model was developed based on the frequency and vibration time for the harvesting capacity and fruit loss of Thomson cultivar of orange.