Mechanical Harvest Trials of New Mexican-Type Green Chile (Capsicum annuum L.)

New Mexico-type green chile (Capsicum annuum L.) is currently entirely hand-harvested, but lack of a predictable labor supply and higher input costs threaten the viability of the New Mexican-type long green chile industry in the southwestern United States. One of the primary methods to lessen labor requirements and make local production more competitive is adoption of mechanical harvest. Information on relative mechanical harvest efficiency (yield, damage, trash content) of green chile varieties is unavailable and must be developed as a preliminary step towards an overall mechanized system for the crop. Five green chile cultivars (AZ-20, NuMex Joe E. Parker, PHB-109, Despanado, and a TAM breeding line) were direct seeded in a randomized complete block design at New Mexico State University’s Leyendecker Plant Science Research Center near Las Cruces, New Mexico in 2009. Plant attributes theorized to contribute to mechanical harvest efficiency (plant height and width, height to fruit set, branching angle, fruit attachment force, and internode length) were measured. Plots were harvested with a commercially available paprika harvester fitted with an inclined helix picking head and manufactured by Yung-Etgar (Bet-Lehem-Hglilit, Israel). No significant differences in mechanically harvested marketable fruit among the varieties were measured. However, harvested trash, amount of broken fruit, and amount of fruit left in the field after harvesting exhibited significant varietal differences. In this trial, wider branching angle appears to correspond to a more dispersed fruit set and improved mechanical harvest efficiency. Of the cultivars tested, ‘Despanado’ and ‘PHB-109’ performed the best with the Yung-Etgar harvester and warrant further evaluation for a mechanical harvest system.