Adoption of Mechanical Harvesting for Sweet Orange Trees in Florida: Addressing Grower Concerns on Long-Term Impacts

The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of mechanical harvesting of juice oranges on future productivity of the orange trees. Yield data from several growers were analyzed over a ten-year-period to estimate a statistical relationship between annual fruit yields and harvest method. Results indicated that mechanical harvesting did not create an adverse near-term nor long-term effect on yields