Short term cropping of blackcurrants for mechanical harvesting

Abstract

The Horticultural Research Centre, Levin, New Zealand established the feasability of growing black currants on a high density system suitable for mechanical harvesting. The prototype mechanical harvester developed at the centre was subsequently further developed and researched by the New Zealand Agricultural Engineering Institute at Lincoln to produce an effective commercial machine. Simultaneously, the Department of Horticulture at Lincoln College developed a 1 hectare area of black currants to research the husbandry and marketing aspects of commercial production on this intensive system and to establish the economics of production and harvesting. This paper details the results of this work.