Chile Mechanization in New Mexico

• Chile is historically a labor-intensive crop

• Labor represents greater than 50% of total production costs in hand-harvested system-In mechanized fields, drops to approx. 11% of production costs

• Mechanization is one of the key methods to level the economic playing field

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Chile Mechanization in New Mexico• 1965: First recorded mechanical harvest of chile by

Ernest Riggs• 1971: First patent of helix picking head for chile to

Wondel Creager

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Chile Mechanization in New Mexico

• Official New Mexico state question:

“Red or Green?”

• Two different industries; two different approaches to harvest

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Red Chile in New Mexico

• Currently, almost all domestic red chile for commercial production is mechanically harvested

• Machines with inclined, double helix picking heads are the most common

Red Chile in New Mexico

• Red chile has an extended harvest season – from succulent to very dry

• Greatest challenge to mechanization is removal of extraneous plant material - increases as the plants dry

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Red Chile Breeding for Mechanization

• Efforts on-going to develop red chile cultivars with high pigment, superior drying, and low heat, but also -

• Upright plant habit

• Fruit set off of the ground

• Mid-level fruit attachment

• Early maturity

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Green Chile is currently 100% hand-harvested

Photo courtesy of P. Funk

Green Chile - Current Challenges to Mechanical Harvest• Fruit are not uniform & don’t ‘roll’ making

them difficult to orient

• Fruit are easily damaged when mechanically harvested

• Destemming is important, but mechanically difficult

Breeding Goals for NM-type Green Chile Mechanized System• Determinate fruit set• Upright habit; fruit off ground• Fruit resistance to breakage• Strong, single stem

• Fruit borne on outside of the canopy

For Mechanical Destemming:• Consistent 2-locule, ‘flat’ fruit• Easy destemming

Progress in 2014

• One row, tractor powered Etgar Harvester procured

• Three observational trials conducted

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Los Lunas Agricultural Science Center

• Transplanted ‘Sandia’ and breeding lines• Furrow irrigation, 30” rows• Issues with plant lodging; harvester not fitted to row

spacing• 10.6% breakage in ‘Sandia

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Deming, NM

• Raymond Viramontes’ field, drip irrigation

• Direct-seeded ‘Machete’ (Curry Chile & Seed Co.)

• Harvester not sized to plants – Plants were uprooted

• Challenge: Leaf removal!

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Leyendecker Plant Science Research Center

• ‘NM 6-4’; direct seeded, furrow irrigation

• Minimal fruit breakage

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