Development of Prototype Machinery for Fruit Setting Management Machine and the Evaluation of Its Workability, for Central Leader Trained Satsuma Mandarin Orange Trees

—Development of Vibration Disbudding Machine and Local Area Spraying Machine for Fruit Thinning Agent—

Abstract

To improve efficiency of fruiting-management of central leader type Satsuma mandarin orange trees, we developed vibrating disbudding machine by remodeling the vibrating harvester for small fruits and local spraying machine, remodeled from small crawler that fits in small steep terrace garden. We examined the working efficiency, using pest control spray machine

For disbudding labor, speed of disbudding machine was 25.5 times higher than that of manual thinning, and labor saving was clearly evident. For disbudding work, we used prototype spray agents for fruit thinning and sprayed locally the agents in lateral stripe by local area spraying machine. Compared to traditional manual thinning practices, using pest control spray method reduced the working hours to just 3% of manual practices.