Brambles - Production Management and Marketing

Bulletin 782-99

Chapter 3 Selection and Care of Plants

Harvesting

Hand picking can be accomplished through workers, through a pick-your-own operation, or through a combination of the two. Good organization is necessary to have the help, boxes, carriers, master containers, and more in readiness so that picking can begin as soon as enough berries are ready and continue smoothly until the season is over.

Raspberries should be picked when they are firm, but well colored, and mature enough to come away readily from the "core." Blackberries for commercial use should be picked when they are black, firm, and slightly sweet. When blackberries are at the proper stage for eating, they are soft and fall easily from the bush, but these berries would be too mature for general commercial handling.

Proper instruction and careful supervision of the pickers are necessary to ensure a good quality pack. Berries are picked directly into the containers in which they are to be marketed, and further sorting is not desirable because of increased bruising and costs. Pickers should be instructed to pick all ripe berries and not miss any. Berries not picked, when they are ready, will be too ripe by the next picking. Pickers should also be instructed to place the berries carefully in the boxes or trays, not to hold too many berries in their hands at a time, and to fill boxes properly.

Pint boxes are generally used for the fresh-market trade. Pickers are usually supplied with a carrier containing several pint boxes. When these boxes are filled, they are taken promptly to a field packing shelter where they are packed for marketing. The shelter provides shade for the harvested berries until they can be taken to cold storage. Tray types of master containers are preferable to multilayer crates. The use of shallow trays without boxes, into which berries are picked directly in the field, is desirable for processing berries.

Pickers should be supplied with some device for holding the picking containers at a convenient height so that both hands will be free for picking. Some growers provide light portable stands on which the carriers can be placed. Some provide six-quart baskets which are strapped around the picker's waist and in which several boxes can be placed.

Harvest frequency varies with weather conditions and with the progression through each cultivar's ripening season. The first few harvests may be conducted as much as three to five days apart and require as few as five pickers; peak harvests should be conducted at one- or two-day intervals and may require as many as eight or 10 pickers per acre. Experienced pickers generally harvest about 10 pounds per hour, while less effective workers may harvest as few as six to seven pounds, and the best workers may harvest more than 14 pounds of fruit per hour throughout the six-hour work day.

Mechanical harvesting of brambles has taken place in Ohio, Oregon, Washington, and Maryland (Figure 18). Substantial acreage (25 or more acres) is required to economically harvest the crop. The large volume of fruit must be immediately sent to a processor. There are smaller, less expensive machines now being produced, but a considerable acreage is still necessary for them to be economical.

Figure 18. Mechanical harvester in Heritage no-trellis system.

Figure 19. Mechanical harvester in thornless blackberry trellis system.