Darwin mechanical blossom thinning

Ensure profitable harvests with increased fruit quality and reduced labor bill!

Controlled thinning that you see directly
after execution
Thins without chemical use
Increase in fruit size and quality by increasing early sugar allocation to limited number of fruit
Reduces biennial tendencies
Fast travel speed ensures high treated area
per hour
Thinning can be performed in all
weather conditions
Can be used for all current cultivars

Characteristics

Excellent fruit size and quality achieved by mechanically thinning with Darwin

Mechanical thinning with Darwin is safer and can be more effective than thinning with chemical substances. It’s also quicker and less labor intensive than manual thinning.

The chemicals used to thin pome fruit are costly, and the success of the thinning depends very much upon weather conditions, the ambient temperature and many other unpredictable factors. A second round of chemical thinning is often necessary and is usually followed thereafter by manual thinning. There are currently no reliable chemical thinning techniques used in stone fruit.

With Darwin you can see your thinning results immediately. You can adjust the level of thinning achieved the first time through the orchard to best fit your production goals. The effect of crop rotation is eliminated, which is very difficult when using chemical solutions because of the very early thinning period.

Then again, thinning by hand doesn’t achieve the same fruit quality and it also leads to constant, high costs. In addition, it is increasingly difficult to find suitable workers for this tasks.

While results will vary based on orchard design and operator competence, research done by PSU suggests that when properly thinning with Darwin, there is never a negative return on the investment. The Darwin always works on a profitable basis.

The machine is attached to the front hydraulic system of the tractor or to the coupling mouth by means of an expander, if the tractor does not possess front hydraulic system. The hydraulic adjustment of the spindle inclination allows the adaptation to the tree form or to the ground.

The tractor drives closely along the tree rows with the front-mounted spindle directly in the canopy of the tree, and will indiscriminately remove random buds, flower clusters, or individual blooms – leaving behind your desired amount of flowers to set fruit.

Darwin was developed from practical experience and in its almost 20 years of evolution has constantly been optimized and adapted to our customers’ requirements.

Technical data

Darwin	Darwin 150	Darwin 200	Darwin 230	Darwin 250	Darwin 300
Working height	1.475 mm	1.935 mm	2.245 mm	2.395 mm	2.850 mm
Working speed	6 – 18 km/h
Spindle rpm	150 – 450 min1
Area performance	1,5 – 2,5 ha/h
String length	600 mm
String bars	18	24	30	30	36
Dimensions in mm (W/D/H)	1.820/1.400/800	2.285/1.400/800	2.580/1.400/800	2.740/1.400/800	3.200/1.400/800
Weight	130 kg	138 kg	142 kg	145 kg	152 kg
Required oil quantity	25 l/min
Max. working pressure	210 bar
Mounting	Mounting to the front right side with or without front hydraulic system
Manual sides shift	595 mm
Hydraulic side shift	400 mm

Equipment variants

Mounting device front plate

For mounting without a front hydraulic system.

The holes are available for the most common tractors, otherwise the mounting plate has to be adapted individually.

Mounting device front hydraulic

For mounting on the (3 – point hitch) front hydraulic, for category I and II.

Control unit

The spindle speed (RPM) can be comfortably and continuously adjusted with buttons on the control unit in the driver’s cabin to be optimally adapted to the driving speed.The set spindle speed in RPM is displayed exactly, and remains constantly at the set value, irrespective of whether the motor speed of the tractor is increased or decreased. By pushing the ESC-button (see image on the right) the spindle can be stopped at any moment, in order to exclude trees with smaller blossoms or to alternate trees in the thinning process.

• Exact display of spindle speed (RPM)
• Continuous adjustment of spindle speed
• Set spindle speed remains constant, independently of the motor speed
• Temporarily stop the spindle by pushing the ESC-button
• Comfortable adjustment from the driver’s cabin

Video

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