Gentle Giants
GOOD FRUIT GROWERS, July 2026 - Blueberry industry continues toward machine harvest for fresh market.
At Pinebloom Farms in Southwest Georgia, Sam Gray uses three FineField Harvy 500 mechanical blueberry harvesters. Each solar-powered machine gets a crew of three: one to drive and two to follow behind to manage the lugs on each side. Four Burro automated carts deliver empty bins and haul away full ones. The autonomous implements deliver full bins to a centralized refrigerated truck operated by four workers. That’s a total of 10 people harvesting his 120 acres of blueberries.
Gray has a “very specific workflow for these harvesters” on his family’s farm, he said. The U.S. blueberry industry continues its march toward mechanical harvest for the fresh market. As growers like Gray dial in the details of pairing technology with laborers, two frontrunners have emerged in the engineering race.
Meanwhile, scientists continue to research new varieties, best practices and food safety related to machine harvest. “We’ve been at this for over 10 years,” said Lisa Wasko DeVetter, professor of small fruits horticulture at Washington State University.
Researchers have conducted numerous projects to determine how drop distance and different catch surfaces affect bruising. They are continuing with new veins of study into how shaking speed and motion affect quality and how long machine-harvested fruit can be stored. They have also begun exploring the food safety implications of mechanical surfaces, while breeders look for harvester-friendly varieties that resist bruising and grow on uniform bushes with narrow crowns. Berry-by-berry robotic picking is even part of the discussion now.
Watch HARVY effortlessly pick fresh market blueberries at Pinebloom Farms in Newton, GA
