Continuous harvest

In agriculture, continuous harvest is the availability of a crop over an extended period during the growing season. Each crop has a harvest window during which it is ready for picking. Some are harvested by removing the whole plant, for example, cutting a head of lettuce. Others can be picked over varying periods: peas and corn may have a window of two weeks, cucumbers six or eight, tomatoes produce until the end of the season.

To provide a season-long continuous harvest of a crop with a shorter harvest window, succession planting techniques are used, including multiple plantings at different times, and planting of cultivars with different maturity dates. In this way, with effective timing, a new planting or variety of a crop is always coming into maturity as a previous one finishes.

References

• Ripening indices and harvesting times of different olive cultivars for continuous harvest. Scientia Horticulturae.
• The effect of new continuous harvest technology of ramie (Boehmeria nivea L. Gaud.) on fiber yield and quality. Industrial Crops and Products.
• Continuous harvest of marine microalgae using electrolysis: effect of pulse waveform of polarity exchange. Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering.
• Evergreen Agriculture: a robust approach to sustainable food security in Africa. Food Security.

External links

• NCAT – National Center for Appropriate Technology
• Continuousharvest.com