Developing an Efficient Mechanical Pruner for Northeast Vineyards

View the project final report

Commodities

• Fruits: grapes

Practices

• Crop Production: no-till
• Education and Training: demonstration, extension, farmer to farmer, on-farm/ranch research, technical assistance
• Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns
• Production Systems: general crop production

Reducing the number of buds per vine in vineyards is traditionally done by hand, which is expensive, or by mechanical means, which tends to leave too many buds that delay ripening and decreases return fruitfulness. The farmer will reconfigure and modify a mechanical pruner to test whether its performance can be improved, and will then compare its performance to results from an unmodified machine.