Picking/Harvesting Hops questions

[Rockhillfarmlubecmaine]

I'm in the learning process and am developing ideas for my own Farm and want to know when harvesting hops when the Hops is ready about how much tension or resistance at the stem does the Cone usually give? Will the cone break apart easily above the stem if it's grabbed there? And finally if the cone is given pressure at the based of the cone at the stem pulling away from the bine will it want to pull the bine with it as you pull away the cone and if so how strong do you think it is pressure wise? I'm a amateur inventor when it comes to farm equipment and have come up with an idea to harvest the Hops cones and a simple machine that anyone can build and use with a trailer and something to pull it with. I'm going to try and build my idea with your help and find a grower here in Maine to test it at harvest time. Thanks in Advance. Tom

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

GVH Dan has one they manufacture or it sounds like you will try to do what did. Look in my pics and there is a old thread some where of the Hops picker I made. It is called HOPSZILLA! Works ok but still needs refining

 

[Kirkwooder]

The combs tend to be fairly well attached. You really need to grab them fairly tight and give them a pretty good yank to get them off the bine. All the hop harvesters that I have seen use rubber fingers like the ones found in chicken pluckers to actually beat the hop off of the bine. They tend to beat the comb into it's separate pedals and not pick it whole.

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

Mine is the front out of a combine. There is a farm equipment salvage yard close by and the owner and I went looking around to see what might work, I did not find anything. The next time I went there I brought a bine full of hops to show him and he had an idea and started a combine up and we put the bine in. It did a surprisingly good job so that is what I started with. My problem is the separation of leave and cones. I am thinking of a mesh belt at an angle to take the debris out and the cone roll down. It is a summer project.

 

[Rockhillfarmlubecmaine]

What i'm thinking of is something i used to strip grapes off of the vines. It's two sections of 2x4 inch fence panels 36 inches wide mounted in a steel frame with it shaped like a funnel on the leading edge laying in a horizontal position. As you drive along down the rows the vine is removed at the top line and laid over and fed in between the wire frames, As the trailer pulls the rack forward the (Grapes) cones in this case are stripped off and drop underneath into totes. The wire can be cattle fencing to be stronger and the space between the racks have just enough room for the bine to squeeze thru but not the cones. The base of each string/bine must be anchored good to pull thru as you move forward. The only thing that i see as a problem is the very bottom of the bine not being close enough to get culled. Maybe three feet worth, and having to Winnow the loose leaves and a few stems away from the cones with a blower maybe. What do you think?

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

I tried the blower stuff and could not get it right. The two fence idea is a good one because the cones should pull off before the leave. Have you ever harvested any hops yet by hand? Aond it is so much easier to cut the bine down and harvest them that way. My field I bigger than a hobby and smaller than a business. Some thing to keep me busy an a tax break. Tom I will pm you my phone give me a call it is easier.

 

[Rockhillfarmlubecmaine]

Mine is the front out of a combine. There is a farm equipment salvage yard close by and the owner and I went looking around to see what might work, I did not find anything. The next time I went there I brought a bine full of hops to show him and he had an idea and started a combine up and we put the bine in. It did a surprisingly good job so that is what I started with. My problem is the separation of leave and cones. I am thinking of a mesh belt at an angle to take the debris out and the cone roll down. It is a summer project.

An old fashioned winnower would work. As the cones drop down a fan would blow the leaves out the side. You would just have to adjust the blower speed to not knock the cones out with the leaves. Maybe a variable speed / dimmer switch or a woodworking tool speed/power adjustment switch.

 

[Rockhillfarmlubecmaine]

I tried the blower stuff and could not get it right. The two fence idea is a good one because the cones should pull off before the leave. Have you ever harvested any hops yet by hand? Aond it is so much easier to cut the bine down and harvest them that way. My field I bigger than a hobby and smaller than a business. Some thing to keep me busy an a tax break. Tom I will pm you my phone give me a call it is easier.

No phone here, just a Tv and ASUS Chromebox connected thru the Sat. TV. We don't use a phone much. Too much Amish blood in me is suppose...lol.

It's better if everybody learns what we are trying to do so maybe we can work out a dirt cheap solution to harvesting. Those commercial pickers are high dollar.

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

Not to much you can do if you go as big as I am reading. The picking is the first part you have to deal with then the drying is a whole different challenge to get them to 10% or less. I tried to reach out and help. Good luck with the endeavor.

 

[TeeJo]

I was looking over the one University Extension ( I think it was) open source hops processor and it looked like it was a pretty good design but too darn big and complicated for folks that didn't have acres of hops to deal with.

Been sorta pondering whether it would make sense to break down the individual processes into separta small machines to make it a little easier to manage for someone that had sorta more than a hobby but less than a living at it kinda qty's to do.

I was pondering the picker belts as used on the likes of the Wolf (Wolfe?) harvesters and wondering if a fella couldn't make a picker that was simply two sets of the belts running horizontally that the bines could be drawn through by hand. Let the leaf and cones drop into a hopper then transport them to a separate sorter pull off the leaves.

More a pondering out loud, sorta thing. Dunno if it has been done or not.

TeeJo

 

[GVH_Dan]

...when the Hops is ready about how much tension or resistance at the stem does the Cone usually give? Will the cone break apart easily above the stem if it's grabbed there? And finally if the cone is given pressure at the based of the cone at the stem pulling away from the bine will it want to pull the bine with it as you pull away the cone and if so how strong do you think it is pressure wise?

I don't have the numbers on this machine but you can look up these numbers for most varieties. "Modern" hops, like cascade, were developed for machine picking, so they are pretty uniform and do a decent job of popping off the stem cleanly. Older varieties, like northern brewer, do not pick as easily. Some come off in clusters of multiple cones, some keep a large amount of stem, some fall off at the site of a picker. Whatever method you use must be adjustable to each type.

The biggest problem is when they don't come off as individual cones. Its almost impossible to separate them. Regardless of the picking technology, you will get a mixture of cones, small leaves, large leaves, stem, side arm, sidearm with leaves, etc. You need to find a way to remove the large material first and then smaller. Trommel screen followed by the winnowing you talk about may work. Dribble belts are what we use.

As someone mentioned, the rubber fingers probably aren't the best. On a chicken, they are used to rub/tear feather and hair off. That's why you end up with broken cones...which REALLY isn't good from the standpoint of product quality and alpha acid retention. You can get picking fingers from Danhauer that are pretty effective.

The biggest problem we found with in-field pickers is the damage they leave behind to the bine itself. It leaves the plant open to pest and disease. Its better to just cut off the harvestable part and take it to your picker.

 

[GVH_Dan]

Here's a thread that went into harvesting equipment that is out there. In particular, there is a link to a presentation given at UVM: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f92/bine-3060-hop-harvester-434241/


As the great Halifax said, picking it off is pretty easy. Separation is where things get pretty tough. Our picker is essentially a 1950's brussel sprout picker outfitted with hop picking fingers. That didn't take long to develop. The separator on our 3060 harvestor uses a dribble belt with a couple of fan blades to help with separation. That took years to develop. Even so, the operator still has to adjust the pitch of the belt based on the cone size, leaf size, if its been raining, how well the cones are picking, etc.

 

[Rockhillfarmlubecmaine]

Not to much you can do if you go as big as I am reading. The picking is the first part you have to deal with then the drying is a whole different challenge to get them to 10% or less. I tried to reach out and help. Good luck with the endeavor.

I have two extra greenhouses i'm not using and don't see why i couldn't build hardware cloth racks with the tons of wire i've accumulated over the years and with no fans running the temps average 90-110 degrees, with two 22 inch box fans i can get the temps down to 75-80 degrees, so i'm guessing with a moisture meter i should be able to dry a lot fairly quickly. I Also have a rotating soil sterilizer drum that holds 250 gallons worth of dirt, maybe i could convert that and slow warm a batch. I've got plenty of time before i get to that stage anyway. And thanks for your help. I Do appreciate it.

 

[GVH_Dan]

The greenhouse will work but you will spend a lot of time and labor laying them out and picking them up.

An acre should produce around 1,000 to 1,500 lbs of hops. Dried properly, you are looking at 1.3 lb/cubic ft or at 1500 lbs you need 1150 cubic feet.

Since you are not forcing air through them, the pile had better be very shallow...like 1 cone deep. but even at 1 inch deep, that is 13,850 square feet. or a space about 100' x 140'. That's a lot of manual labor to lay them out and then gather them back up.

The drum won't work. As the cones dry, they open up like pine cone and become very brittle. If they are actively agitated, the lupulin will fall out of the cones and you will be left with a pile of yellow dust and bracts on the floor and a dryer full of the strigs.

Please, trust me. I speak from experience.

 

[brian4508]

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