PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jennifer Kujawski
AU  - John Englert
AU  - Dan Dusty
AU  - R Jay Ugiansky
TI  - Equipment Modifications for Harvesting Fluffy Seeds
AID  - 10.3368/npj.2.2.114
DP  - 2001 Sep 21
TA  - Native Plants Journal
PG  - 114--115
VI  - 2
IP  - 2
4099  - http://npj.uwpress.org/content/2/2/114.short
4100  - http://npj.uwpress.org/content/2/2/114.full
SO  - NATIVE PLANTS JOURNAL2001 Sep 21; 2
AB  - Fluffy seeds of native wildflowers are difficult to harvest using traditional equipment and methods. We modified intake and storage on a tractor-drawn leaf vacuum machine to better harvest fluffy seeded species such as aster (Aster L. [Asteraceae]) and narrowleaf silkgrass (Pityopsis graminifolia (Michx.) Nutt. [Asteraceae]). By inserting collection bags inside the vacuum and creating a vacuum hood to ride over the rows of plants, only 1 person is needed for the harvest process. The modified equipment allows us to make repeated harvests over the several-week ripening period and it removes only ripe seeds from the plants.