Abstract
To reduce the amount of labor needed for harvesting vegetable jute, its growth habits were investigated by conventional cultivation methods. The combined marketable yields over the 50-day period were 629.1 branches/m2 and 3, 659g/m2, although a high branch density made cutting difficult in the preceding harvest. Total yield mainly consisted of the primary, secondary and third branches, whose yield peaks occurred at about 4-week intervals. The yield fluctuated at each harvest time. After harvesting the primary branches, the weights of all the other branches were about the same. Harvesting required time for the movement of scissors and time to check the branch lengths and the number of knots. To resolve these problems, a study was conducted to examine the effects of training the branches to grow in different configurations. By training the primary branches to grow horizontally and the secondary branches to grow vertically after pinching the trunk at 20cm above the ground, the marketable yield per area increased by 6% and the work time per area decreased by 17%. This method confined the cutting position mostly to a single plane and improved the efficiency of light reception. In addition, stem hardness was less than that obtained with the conventional pinch method.
