How much does a tomato harvester cost?
A modern tomato harvester costs nearly $500,000 and can harvest 70 tons per hour.
What was the outcome of the invention of the automatic tomato harvester?
For one, the new harvesters were expensive and required a lot more land to make a profit. In the first five years after the machine’s release, 4,428 of 5,000 tomato growers went out of business (a whopping 82 percent consolidation in the industry) and an estimated 32,000 farm workers lost their jobs.
Why was the mechanical tomato harvester invented?
University of California engineer Coby Lorenzen and University of California crop breeder Gordie “Jack” Hanna put their heads together to develop a machine to harvest, sort and load processing tomatoes, as well as a tomato variety that would be tough enough to survive a harvester.
Are tomatoes picked by machine?
Steady improvements in these complementary technologies have contributed to the success of the mechanical tomato harvester. Virtually all California processing tomatoes are currently mechanically harvested, according to the report.
How are tomatoes made?
Although in culinary terms, tomato is regarded as a vegetable, its fruit is classified botanically as a berry. As a true fruit, it develops from the ovary of the plant after fertilization, its flesh comprising the pericarp walls. The fruit contains hollow spaces full of seeds and moisture, called locular cavities.
How did the tomato crop almost fail?
A. A tomato plant could fail to fruit because of one or all of the following reasons: poor pollination, incompatible weather or incorrect fertilizing. Tomato flowers have both male and female organs and, in theory, are self-fertilizing.
Are tomatoes harvested by hand?
Mechanization has made the farming of many crops — lettuce and tomatoes among them — a lot less labor intensive. But some crops are still tended and harvested by hand, and it can be painstaking work.
What is the mechanical tomato harvester?
The UC-Blackwelder tomato harvester, developed at the University of California, Davis, in 1949, helped to usher in mechanization that proved vital in the growth of California’s tomato-growing business.
How are tomatoes produced?
Commercially produced tomatoes generally are started as transplants in the greenhouse 42 to 56 days prior to planting in the field. Because tomatoes are a warm-season crop, they should not be transplanted until soil temperatures 3 inches beneath the soil surface reach 60°F.
How are tomatoes transported?
Whenever possible, farmers should use refrigerated trucks to transport tomatoes. If they are unavailable, cover non-refrigerated trucks with jute spreads or tarpaulins to protect tomatoes from transpiration. Tomatoes can also be packed in wooden or plastic crates/lugs or cartons in trucks.
Where is tomato originally from?
The wild species originated in the Andes Mountains of South America, probably mainly in Peru and Ecuador, and is thought to have been domesticated in pre-Columbian Mexico; its name is derived from the Náhuatl (Aztec) word tomatl.