Abstract: A nut harvester and separator, particularly for nuts such as pecans, almonds and walnuts, includes a wheeled frame drawn by a tractor over nut and trash windrows on the nut-orchard ground. Power-driven pick-up and lifting reels within a longitudinal plenum on the frame advance the picked-up material well into the plenum. A power-driven suction fan is open to the top of the plenum and draws atmospheric air into the plenum partially through a powered chain conveyor largely defining the bottom wall of the plenum. Atmospheric air is also drawn into the plenum through side inlets in an initial free fall zone of separation providing separation and removal of a large fraction of the light debris which is lifted through the suction fan and discharged to the atmosphere. Heavy, less aerodynamically responsive nuts are left behind to lodge on the conveyor along with the remaining fraction of light debris to form a blanket.

Abstract: For separating nuts from orchard trash in a windrow, the mixture of nuts and trash is picked up and deposited on the forward end of a foraminous conveyor enclosed by a housing connected to a fan inducing a vigorous flow of air through the conveyor. Variously arranged baffles, walls and guide plates direct the air rearwardly to enhance separation capacity and form settling zones to increase separation efficiency. Provision is also made for abruptly changing the direction of movement of the nut and trash supporting upper run of the conveyor to dislodge and tumble the nuts and the trash as they traverse the separation zone where the flow of air emerges through the upper run, thereby effecting even more rapid and efficient separation.

Abstract: A harvester pick-up particularly for retrieving fallen nuts and fruits, such as almonds, oranges and the like, from the ground includes a mobile frame preferably self-propelled or tractor drawn and having a primary rotary brush generally in contact with the ground and mounted on the frame for rotation transversely at the leading end thereof. Also disposed on the frame is a power driven secondary brush parallel to and behind the primary brush and arranged so that the tines on the brushes interdigitate or interrelate and operate in such a direction that they pick up materials from the ground between them and toss the picked-up materials onto a reflecting panel from which the materials are deposited onto a primary conveyor belt leading rearwardly. A stream of air is impelled to flow along the primary conveyor and assists in lifting lighter waste materials therefrom.