Determination of Some Fruit, Tree and Machine Characteristics in Terms of Mechanical Apricot Harvesting in Turkey

摘要

Turkey is the biggest apricot producer in the world with 538.000 ton production and 20.15% share. Moreover, 83% of dried apricots in the world markets are produced in Turkey. 13 350 000 apricot trees are present, but the technical aspect is not developed because of the complex structure of trees, unevenness of land and non-uniform fruit maturity. In order to approach the mechanisation feasibility the impact of relevant factors has been investigated: apricot types, parameters involved in mechanical harvesting, harvesting criteria, physical changes during maturity, dynamic properties such as flexibility coefficient and force phase angle of apricot trees, amplitude and frequency values applied in shaker, power requirements in shaker and characteristicsof fruit, tree and machine with respect to design of harvest systems.