Green onion harvester

A mobile harvester mounted upon a self propelled vehicle for harvesting one or more rows of green onions and including a pickup assembly, a slanted conveyor, a further conveyor and a collection tray, said harvester comprising:

• a. said pickup assembly having at least one pair of arms extending downwardly and forwardly of the vehicle for bracketing one of the rows of green onions, said pickup assembly including:
• i. a first vertically oriented pulley rotatably mounted at the forward extremity of each arm of said pair of arms;
• ii. a second pulley oriented orthogonal to said first pulley and rotatably mounted within the forward end of said slanted conveyer assembly;
• iii. a belt extending about said first and second pulleys, said belt being spirally oriented by said first and secon pulleys;
• and
• iv. means for driving one belt of said pair of belts in a first direction and the other belt of said pair of belts in another direction;
• whereby, the spiral orientation of each belt of each said pair of belts produces convergence of said pair of belts to draw the foliage into and between said pair of arms and said pickup assembly serially withdraws the green onions from the soil and transports them upwardy and toward the vehicle;
• b. said slanted conveyer assembly being attached to the vehicle in proximity to the front thereof for supporting said arms of said pickup assembly, receiving the vertically oriented green onions from said pickup assembly and transporting them upwardly onto the vehicle while maintaining them vertically oriented, said slanted conveyer assembly including:
• i. a plurality of blades attached to said slanted conveyer assembly and extending forwardly of the vehicle, each said blade being in general alignment with a row of green onions and being vertically disposed beneath the bulbs of the green onions for severing the green onion roots and facilitate withdrawal of the green onions from the soil;
• ii. a plurality of first and second vertically displaced but axially aligned pairs of belts for receiving the green onions withdrawn by said pickup assembly and discharging the green onions at the end of said slanted conveyer, each of said first and second pairs of belts being mated with one of said pairs of arms;
• iii. each of a plurality of pairs of pulleys being rotatably mounted upon said slanted conveyer for supporting said first pair of belts and maintaining portions of said first pair of belts in resiliently yielding contact with one another to receive and retain the stem of the foliage of the green onions transported by the mated ones of said pair of arms at or before discharge of the green onions from said pickup assembly and bruise the base of at least the lowermost leaf forming the foliage;
• iv. each of a further plurality of pairs of pulleys being rotatably mounted on said slanted conveyer for supporting said second pair of belts and maintaining said second pair of belts spaced apart from one another to receive and guide the foliage of the green onions released by said pickup assembly while the green onions are gripped and transported by said first pair of belts;
• c. a further conveyer assembly for transporting the green onions to a discharge end of said further conveyer while maintaining them vertically oriented, said further conveyer assembly being mounted on the vehicle in proximity to the discharge end of said slanted conveyer assembly and having one set of belts for receiving the vertically oriented green onions transported by each said first and second pair of belts of said slanted conveyer assembly;
• d. a collection tray attached to the vehicle in proximity to the discharge end of said further conveyer assembly for receiving the green onions transported by said further conveyer assembly;
• and
• e. motive means for energizing the belts of said pickup assembly, said slanted conveyer assembly and said further conveyer assembly.