apples & pears Huge potential for pre-cleaning

With more than 650 units sold since it was introduced in 2005, the Evolution Separator is in use around the world by vegetable handlers – but is signi cantly growing in popularity with fruit enterprises, too

Scotts Precision Manufacturing Ltd managing director Derek Scott outlines what he reckons makes the Evolution so e ective: “We have experimented for some years precleaning with various crop types, but have found removing orchard-based debris from apples to be one of the most e ective.

“We now have around 10 machines working exclusively on apples both here in the UK and North America, with strong enquiries across northern Europe. What makes the system so attractive is that we can remove almost all types of debris, including broken or rotting apples, without losses or damage to the crop. These machines can cope with both dry crops or umed ‘wet’ crop at very high throughputs of up to 100t per hour. On our widest model we o er an electric driven in-store version and a much more compact hydraulic driven version which can be integrated into the harvester.”

The Evolution Separator generally works by extracting the debris between two contra rotating rollers. The larger roller (spiral roller) has air chambers and is deformable with a spiralling rib. The smaller roller (clod roller) is smooth with a choice of nishes. The clever design of the ‘spiral rib’ entrains the debris down into the valley between the rollers where, if the debris is soft enough, it is then crushed and ejected down below the separator. Stones will also pass between the rollers as the ‘spiral roller’ readily deforms around the stone so does not allow losses of crop at this time. If larger stones enter the valley and there is not enough deformation in the spiral roller there is a safety mechanism that allows the clod roller to spring away momentarily to allow the stone to pass through.

Thatchers has con rmed a positive experience of the product. The company has been running the Evolution for the last two seasons, and says it has made a signi cant improvement to its pre-cleaning.

Derek Scott concludes: “The Evolution has broad appeal. It is used by farmers as part of an on-farm harvesting process and incorporated extensively into processing lines by some of the world’s leading vegetable handling machinery manufacturers. Both groups are united by their desire to use a thoughtfully designed, exceptionally manufactured and e ective separator – that’s why they choose the Evolution.”

I believe there are still growers who are not fully aware of the requirements for testing pesticide application equipment, be it boom or air blast sprayers, micro-granular and slug pellet applicators. Or the wide range of specialist equipment which, if it is applying a professional pesticide, must be tested.

For those of you having your machines tested, it can be confusing to know when the various types of equipment are due. With Red Tractor it is straightforward, as all air-blast sprayers must be tested annually. However, it may be the case that other grower groups follow the legal requirements of testing, which is every three years. For all growers using herbicide sprayers, it is likely that these only need to be tested every six years, but check your scheme protocols for con rmation. There is currently no requirement for knapsack or other handheld equipment to be tested, but they must be checked regularly.

The basis for testing any type of application equipment is to ensure safe and accurate application of pesticides. The most common faults found on sprayers are leaks and drips, many of which can quickly and easily be repaired by the operator prior to the test. NSTS has an operator check sheet available from the website which can be used throughout the season and also has space for you to record a calibration.

Fertiliser spreader testing is also o ered by NSTS and, although nitrogen rates for many crops in the fruit and vineyard sectors are relatively low, with the increase in prices since August 2021, consideration should be given to check that machines are spreading accurately. This has two bene ts; rstly, knowing what the coe cient of variation (CV) is for a spreader gives you peace of mind that, having a spreader with a CV below 10%, the crop can utilise everything applied fully. Secondly, accurate application helps meet environmental requirements including NVZ rules and Farming Rules for Water.

NSTS will, for the rst time, be having a stand at Fruit Focus on 12th July so please stop by and have a chat about any sprayer testing questions you may have.

Whichever type of equipment you use, there are many bene ts from testing; not only to meet legal requirements, but also having a machine that will apply pesticides (and fertiliser) safely and accurately to gain best value for money from all products applied.