Chile Stand Management for Mechanical Green Chile Harvest.

Chile Stand Management for Mechanical Green Chile Harvest

 Havlik, C.D., Walker, S., Funk, P., and Marsalis, M.

ABSTRACT

Determination of mechanical efficiency for green chile (Capsicum annuum) harvest has significant challenges, including appropriate thinning rates for chile stands. Earlier studies have suggested that closer plant spacing can have a beneficial impact for the mechanical yield and quality of red chile pods. A 2-yr experiment was initiated at the NMSU Los Lunas Agricultural Science Center to determine optimum thinning treatment between chile plants for efficient mechanical harvest and to assess impact on fruit yield and quality.   Three spacing treatments were imposed: four, eight, and twelve (standard control) inches apart on two cultivars, ‘NuMex Joe E. Parker’ and ‘AZ-1904’.   Plants were direct seeded on April 17th, 2015 in a randomized complete block design, with five replications. On June 11th, 2015 plots were thinned to the planned treatments within the row. An Etgar Series MOSES 1010 (Bet-Lehem-Haglilit, Israel), machine was used to harvest the green chile.  Harvest data included green fruit weight and size, broken fruit, fruit left on the ground and on plants.  In general, ‘NuMex Joe E. Parker’ yielded more mature green fruit than ‘AZ-1904’.  The fruit of ‘AZ-1904’ was heavier and longer than those of ‘NuMex Joe E. Parker’ (P < 0.05).  There was a significant difference in yield between ‘NuMex Joe E. Parker’ thinned to 4 inches apart (24.63 a kg/plot) and ‘AZ-1904’ thinned to 12 inches apart (12.69 b kg/plot). There was a  difference between the amounts of broken pods in the different treatments and ‘NuMex Joe E. Parker’ thinned to 12 inches apart (3.09 b kg/plot) yielded less than ‘AZ-1904’ thinned to 4 inches apart (6.03 a kg/plot; P<0.05). The’ NuMex Joe E. Parker’ and the ‘AZ-1904’ had similar amounts of fruit left on the plant.  The ‘NuMex Joe E. Parker’ thinned to 4 inches apart had less (P<0.05) fruit left on the ground (1.79 b kg/plot) than ‘AZ-1904’ thinned to 8 inches apart (5.42 a kg/plot).   The Etgar Series MOSES 1010 harvester seems to work efficiently on the four-inch spaced chile plants of both varieties.   Currently, the green chile crop is entirely hand harvested.  In order to switch to a mechanical harvesting system, production practices need to be fine-tuned.  Based on the first year’s results, the ’NuMex Joe E. Parker’ spaced at four-inches indicates the largest weight of mature green chile pods per acre and no negative effect on the fruit dimensions, when the four-inch spacing is used.