Methods for evaluation of picking performance of chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) harvesters. Part II: Development of new methods

• It could be shown that due to the high variability, weight-based measurements of losses would require an enormous number of repetitions to achieve the required precision.
• The weight of flowers correlates strongly with the number of flowers.
• A comparison of weight-based and number-based evaluation method is presented.
• The number of flowers could be determined by photographing the plants.
• Image processing software could be programmed for rapid and reliable evaluation of losses.

Because efficient and powerful harvesters are necessary in the production of medicinal plants, the evaluation of these machines is a key requirement in their development. Especially chamomile harvesters need a reliable evaluation procedure. It is pointed out that due to the high variation in chamomile stands a large number of repetitions is required to achieve statistically firm results. In the past, this made evaluation methods highly time-consuming and labor-intensive as they were often based on manual picking of all the flowers from particular plots before and after the mechanical harvest. Based on the discussion of previous evaluation methods, new procedures are presented in this paper, which allows a more reliable evaluation with less effort. A new approach is proposed, based on determining the number of flowers by photographing the crop stand from above before and after harvest.

Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide