Cool Machines: Orange Tree Shaker
The player loads from YouTube only when you press play.
Toward the end of winter, a machine rolls through the orange groves clamping onto each tree trunk and shaking it hard enough to send the ripe fruit falling straight down into a collection net spread below. We filmed the whole mechanical process, oranges raining down in a steady stream once the shaking really got going. It looks almost aggressive compared to hand picking, but it clearly gets an entire tree harvested in a fraction of the time.
