Simultaneous processing of multiple rows of plants, especially trellised rows

Apparatus enabling the simultaneous processing of two parallel rows of plants, each of said rows having two sides and a height, there being a central path between said rows, and an outer path on the other side of each row, said apparatus comprising:

• a chassis having an engine, a power take off from said engine, a rear drive shaft driven by said engine originally intended to drive rear wheels, and two steerable front wheels, said chassis having a width narrower than the spacing between the adjacent rows, said front wheels having a lateral first gauge no wider than the central path;
• two laterally spaced apart upright posts mounted on said chassis toward the rear thereof;
• a bridge mounted to said posts between said posts at an elevation above the height of the rows and extending laterally beyond the posts at each side;
• a pair of struts depending from said bridge, one at each side of said chassis at a lateral spacing apart so as to overhang the outer paths when the chassis is in the center path;
• a rear wheel drivingly mounted to the lower end of each of said struts spaced at a lateral second gauge from each other;
• a power train extending from said power take-off, through the posts, bridge, and struts to said rear wheels, said power take-off being powered by said engine and controllable by an operator to drive the tractor;
• a pair of forwardly-extending laterally spaced apart crane arms journaled to said bridge for upward and downward rotation;
• a crane arm motor to rotate each of said crane arms;
• a yoke hingedly mounted to each crane arm spaced from said bridge for tilting movement in the plane of each said arm;
• a yoke tilting motor between said each crane arm and each said yoke;
• a pair of pivot arms on each yoke, one on each side;
• tool mounts on each pivot arm to mount a respective rotatable tool and tool drive motor, said pivot arms being so disposed and arranged that a tool mounted to the respective pivot arms may adjustably be moved relative to the yoke to enable a tool carried by them to approach or withdraw from a trellis which the yoke straddles;
• a pivot arm motor respective to each pivot arm between said yoke and said pivot arm to move said pivot arm;
• a power supply providing energy for the motors;
• and
• controls respective to each said motor for manipulation by an operator.