Sour cherry trees cultivars Debreceni Botermo, Nefris, English Morello and local Sokówka Serocka were densely planted at4x1.4x1.5 and 4 x 2 m, and the leader trained for mechanical harvesting with a self-propelled straddle harvester working in continuous motion. From the 3rd year onward the trees were renewal-pruned. Branches older than 3 years were cut back and replaced by young wood. All the cultivars were suitable for mechanical harvesting, although the trees of 'English Morello' were the most difficult to train because of weak growth and trailing shape. Growth measurements over six years indicated that the optimal planting density for 'English Morello' trees was 4 x 1.5 m, and for the other cultivars 4x2m. The harvester designed at the Institute of Horticulture, Skierniewice, was operated by 4 people and appeared to be able to harvest fruit with 95% effectiveness, delivering about 2000 kg of fruit per hour. Fruit quality was good for industrial processing, but not as good as that of hand-picked cherries suitable for freezing.
The requirements relative to the formation of the cherry trees in the orchards for the mechanical cherry picking, the rules of mechanical cherry picking and machines used in the cherry orchards in the different countries are presented. The experiences with the mechanical cherry picking, i.e. picking in the permanent mode are discussed. The parameters of the hand and mechanical picking and effects of mechanical picking in the different research centers are compared.