Methods for evaluation of picking performance of chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) harvesters. Part I: Comparison of established methods

Because efficient and powerful harvesters are necessary in the production of medicinal plants, the evaluation of these machines is the key in their development. This paper discusses and contrasts the methods used to evaluate flower picking machines under practical conditions and the problems that derive from them. In such evaluations, losses in terms of the remaining flowers and the flowers picked but not collected are a main criterion. The analysis of previous investigations concerning flower harvesters shows that a statistical validation is hardly achievable because of the high variation of the data. Increasing the precision of established methods for the determination of losses would cause high expenses of time and labor. Therefore, it is necessary to develop alternative methods which result in the required precision with an acceptable amount of work. (C) 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.