Optimum Plant Growth Habit for Harvest Efficiency with Etgar® Picker: A Comparison of Six Green Chile (Capsicum annuum) Cultivars.

Optimum plant growth habit for harvest efficiency with Etgar® picker: A comparison of six green chile (Capsicum annuum) cultivars.

Israel Calsoyas , Plant and Environmental Sciences, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM

S. Walker, Plant and Environmental Sciences, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM

P. Funk, USDA Agricultural Research Service Southwestern Cotton Ginning Research Lab, Mesilla Park, NM

 

Cultivation of green chile (Capsicum annuum), one of New Mexico’s leading horticultural crops, is threatened due to the high cost and unavailability of labor. Development and adoption of green chile harvest mechanization, a solution to high cost and unavailability of labor, depends on harvester design coupled with plant growth habit that optimizes harvest efficiency. The objective of this study was to evaluate harvest efficiency and plant habit of six green chile cultivars with the Etgar^® double, open helix harvester. In a trial conducted at New Mexico State University’s Agricultural Science Center in Los Lunas, New Mexico, six cultivars, AZ-1904, Machete, PHB-205, E9, PDJ.7, and RK3-35 (Curry Chile and Seed Co., Pearce, AZ) were evaluated. Plots were direct seeded on 17 April 2015 and managed according to standard production practices. Plant attributes including plant width (cm), plant height (cm), height to first bifurcation (cm), length between first bifurcation and first node (cm), and stem diameter (mm) were measured before harvest, and mechanically harvested yield components were assessed 01 September 2015. ‘PDJ.7’ had the tallest plants, but not statistically (P ≤ 0.05) different from ‘AZ-1904’, while ‘E9’ had significantly shorter plants. ‘E9’, ‘RK3-35’, ‘Machete’, ‘PHB-205’, and ‘PDJ.7’ all had more basal branches per plant, compared to ‘AZ-1904’ with significantly fewer basal branches. No significant differences were measured in broken fruit or sticks harvested. ‘PDJ.7’, ‘AZ-1904’, and ‘RK3-35’ had the greatest height to first bifurcation, while ‘E9’ was significantly less. ‘PDJ.7’ and ‘AZ-1904’ had the highest green yield, while ‘Machete’ was significantly lower in green yield when harvested with the Etgar^® picker. Improved mechanical harvest efficiency correlated with high bifurcation and fewer basal branches; therefore, future breeding efforts will select for these traits to develop green chile cultivars for mechanical harvest.