Clipping Fuji stalks, influences fruit injuries

Forcing a picker to clip the stalk after picking impaired harvesting productivity.  We hoped that this loss in productivity would be beneficial to the final product by ending with fruit in a box with fewer injuries.  This was unfortunately not the case in this trial where in no instance did we have fewer injuries in the carton when clipping the fruit.  Unfortunately the effect of being able to run at greater packing speed was never tested, but it can be surmised that the same effect would be true as reported in literature (Edie, 1995).

The type of scissor we used, were designed for citrus picking.  Clipping a stalk of a round fruit is complexly different to cutting a stalk out of a hollow stalk cavity.  If the design of the scissor were changed where, for instance, the tips of the scissors were blunted and rounded, then the number of injuries caused by clipping could be much less.

With stalk punctures becoming such an important factor on other cultivars such Braeburn, attention should be focused in getting the scissors design right.