pickers collecting drops for cider). A "mechanical 

 apple" [Fruit Notes 54(l):6-7] was placed in picking 

 buckets used by commercial pickers to obtain data in 

 the field. 



Rough filling into an unpadded bin bruised 89% of 

 the apples, with an average of over 2 bruises per fruit. 

 The foam pad reduced this to 64% bruising and 1.4 

 bruises per fruit. Gentle filling resulted in 28% bruis- 

 ing (0.35 bruises per fruit), which was not reduced by 

 the foam pad. 



Gentle filling did not cause enough impact for the 

 "mechanical apple" to register data. Rough filling 

 always caused impacts to be recorded. In the field tests, 

 the "mechanical apple" recorded impacts in two-thirds 

 of the trials. However, these impacts were mostly of 

 low velocity and seemed to be more associated with 

 bucket filling than bucket emptying. 



Orchard Handling 



Four transport systems were evaluated: ( 1 ) a self- 

 loading bin carrier; (2) a standard rear tractor fork-lift 

 with short tines; (3) a standard rear tractor fork-lift 

 with long tines; (4) a cross-action air-shock rear tractor 

 fork-lift with long tines. Half of each bin was padded 

 with 1/2 inch of foam on the floor and 1/4 inch of foam 



on the sides, while the other half of the bin was not 

 padded. Damage-free apples were positioned in the 

 bottom, middle, and top layers of fruit on both the 

 padded and unpadded sides of the bin. The bins were 

 transported about 1.25 miles over a combination of 

 paved, gravel, and orchard roads, and the fruit were 

 then examined for bruising. 



Without padding 12% of the fruit in a bin on the 

 front of a bin loader were bruised and 50% of the ones 

 in a bin on the rear of the bin loader were bruised. 

 About 22% of these bruises were 1/2 to 3/4 inch in 

 diameter. On the forklifts, 22 to 32% of the fruit 

 became bruised during transport, regardless of type of 

 forklift, with nearly all of the bruises being less than 

 1/2 inch in diameter. In most cases, padding reduced 

 bruising but the greatest benefit occurred where most 

 bruising occurred, that is, in the rear bin on a bin 

 carrier. In this situation, padding reduced bruising 

 from 50% to 21%. Most of the bruising (and bruise 

 reduction) occurred where fruit were in contact with a 

 side of a bin during rough transport. The results of 

 these tests are summarized in Figure 1. 



Road Transport 



To measure the effects of methods of transporting 



80 



70- 



60-1 



«o 50 



-3* 

 a. 



g 40- 



.<2 30 



E 



CD 



20 



10 

 



l 1 Total 



crr?\ Top Level 

 fs7s^3 Middle Level 

 Bottom Level 



r-xn Sides 





Pad No Pad 



Truck 



Pad No Pad 



Trailer 



Figure 2. Total apple bruising incurred during truck and trailer transportation. 



Fruit Notes, Summer, 1990 



15 



