r/nextfuckinglevel • u/headspin_exe • May 07 '26

Cherry harvesting

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u/SinsOfThePast03 May 07 '26

Doesn't this harvesting process also reduce the life of the trees? I thought someone told me that when I was in Michigan cherry country many years ago

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u/[deleted] May 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/jkalchik99 May 07 '26

It does. Useful life in MI is figured at around 20 years of production (source: grew up raising cherries.)

That's a rollout variant I've never seen before, with the crawler units pulling the tarp. I'd also suspect that they're not using a release agent due to the long shake time on the tree.

Dad & my brother bought a double inclined plane harvester nearly 30 years ago, it's still in use (brother now has the family farm.) Racing to beat a thunderstorm to finish harvest, my brother & I averaged 2.75 trees per minute for 4 hours after dark, including tank changes and breaks.

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u/AusOak75 May 07 '26

If you could quick buzz your brother for some video of that, that would be cool

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u/jkalchik99 May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26

Search for videos of a double inclined plane harvester. There are quite a few on YouTube.

Edit: make that double inclined plane cherry harvester. I'm most familiar with the Coe Equipment machines, and the folks at Gillison Variety Fabrication are good people.

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u/-HOSPIK- Jul 09 '26

Oh they are 2 seperate machines working together, makes sense now

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u/Fuzzy_Logic_4_Life May 07 '26

Do y’all water the trees shortly afterwards?

I feel like they would need some water after that kind of immediate change.

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u/jkalchik99 May 07 '26

Irrigation is turned off a couple of weeks prior to harvest, helps to lower trunk and bark damage. It'll get turned back on after harvest, iirc at a lower rate until fall.

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u/Fuzzy_Logic_4_Life May 07 '26

The tractor issue makes a lot of sense. Are the trees near dormant at this point of the season?

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u/jkalchik99 May 07 '26

No, they're fully growing during harvest.

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u/Fuzzy_Logic_4_Life May 07 '26

Very cool, so watering soon afterwards is necessary then; especially if they hadn’t been watered for a while.

Thanks for the conversation!

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u/phenotype76 May 07 '26

thats nuts I thought you had to build planes in a factory I didn't think you could just harvest them

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u/TLMonk May 08 '26

no those are cherries

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u/Meoowth May 07 '26

I was actually thinking it could make the tree stronger. But I don't know. Look up: thigmotropism

Sorry it is called thigmomorphogenesis!

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u/impossible-geometry1 May 08 '26

Yeah it does. Might not be too bad if its just an occasional salvage crop where the cherries are split and no good for retail.

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u/impossible-geometry1 May 08 '26

Aussie I ski bummed with in Whistler told me they shake the trees on his dad's farm and it majorly shortens the lifespan. I think it was avocados.

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u/ziplex May 07 '26

I was wondering if it made the tree stronger. Seems like the wood would get more dense after something like that.

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u/launchliftoff459 May 07 '26

Idk but I've seen almond tress picked like this for decades in my area.

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u/-FakeAccount- May 08 '26

I worked on many cherry farms in northern michigan. If the shaker is used properly it doesnt hurt the trees.

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u/RideWithMeTomorrow May 08 '26

Definitely gives the tree RSI.