Technology Aids Apple Harvest

By Myrna Stark Leader

Imagine an apple tree. You’ve probably pictured a lollipop-shaped tree, full of bright red apples. It’s still often the image portrayed in books or seen in residential yards. Yet, increasingly, Canada’s apple farmers grow in high-density spindle apple orchards, which enables newer harvest methods with a number of benefits.

Spindle orchards have straight rows of thin trees planted close together. Growers manage the orchard to produce apples spaced about six inches apart, one apple to the left, space, and another apple on the right. This spacing allows the best natural light penetration, helping the fruit grow and ripen. Trees are pruned to nine to 12 feet high, with about 10 feet between rows.

This growing layout produces more top-grade apples on less land, averaging 2,178 trees per acre. It’s also easier to prune small branches in spring so the trees produce fruit that meets the highest quality grading standard. The goal is large, uniform, evenly coloured and ripened apples with the right sugar and starch levels to ensure great taste and longevity in special cold storage. Storage is required so consumers can have fresh apples year-round. Apples graded higher generally equal better financial returns to the grower, as well as being easier to market domestically and internationally.

Harvest, then verses now

Spindle orchard design has led to harvest technology advances like harvest platforms. Although they’ve been around since the 1990s, usage is growing. Platforms speed harvest, save labour, protect workers and have less impact on the fruit.

Traditionally, apple pickers climb ladders picking one apple at a time by hand, placing each into a large canvas bag strapped to their chest. Pickers climb down with a full bag, walk to a large collection bin placed at intervals in the orchard, and empty their bag. Bins holds about 2,000 apples or between 800-1,000 pounds, which is a lot of climbing.

A picking platform simplifies the process. The platform is driven between rows. Wheels independently rise and lower compensating for dips or slopes in the orchard, so the platform is always level.

Pickers work with the machine, two on the ground on either side, two standing on flat platforms about half the tree height and two on even higher perches. Each standing space can move independently, up, down, in and out, allowing picking where needed and adjusted for the picker’s height. Most apple varieties bruise easily, causing browning under the apple skin but often invisible from the outside, so this means pickers still hand harvest one apple at a time. Instead of carrying them, apples are placed on one of several conveyor belts, easily within reach.

The belts move the fruit to a central conveyor which gently fills a bin located on the back of the machine, reducing handling damage. When the bin is full, it’s softly lowered to the ground and an empty bin moves from the front of the machine to the back, taking its place.

What makes it better?

At about $120,000 Canadian for a platform in 2024, the machine is an investment designed for tangible returns.

At the SurinderJit Sandhar Farms orchards in Kelowna, pickers will make two to three harvest passes through their orchards on the machine, picking only the ripest apples each time, ensuring top quality.

With the chance of rain or frost increasing in the fall, getting fruit harvested fast is critical. Labour shortages in the fruit tree sector have been an issue in Canada for years. Today, temporary workers from countries like Mexico and Jamaica do much of the Canadian apple harvest. The platform enables pickers to accomplish more in less time and requires less pickers.

In 2023, Canada produced 368.5 million kilograms (812.4 million pounds) of apples, according to Statistics Canada, about the same as the weight of 736,000 grand pianos. That’s a lot of apples to carry. A study at Penn State University extension showed 30-40% of traditional harvest methods are spent moving and climbing ladders and walking to bins. Additionally, the machine aids in other tasks, like tree pruning and scouting the orchard for early detection of diseases or pests.

More important, occupational injury risks are greatly reduced. There’s less strain on workers’ bodies, less reaching and lifting apples, and it eliminates the risk of falls from ladders, which can be life-threatening.

With such practical benefits, as the industry continues to evolve and ongoing research improves the technology, harvest platforms will likely become more advanced. One platform design requires only five feet, eight inches of space between orchard rows. This narrower machine could result in newer spindle orchards adding an additional row between existing rows, enabling even more food production and solidifying them in modern apple farming.