Design and experiment of no-tube seeder for wheat sowing

Abstract

In order to solve the problem of poor uniformity and low depth stability in traditional tube seeding (TTS), this paper proposes a no-tube seeding (NTS) method for wheat sowing. A NTS test platform was constructed, and accuracy and uniformity of seeding quality were optimized with the ground clearance as the experimental factor. It was found that the ground clearance with the seeding accuracy and uniformity were both quadratic functions. The seeding quality was good in ground clearance range of 5∼8.8 cm, and ground clearance of 7 cm was in line with the actual seeding conditions, the corresponding seeding accuracy was 83.84 % and the variation coefficient of seeding uniformity was 14.68 %. The NTS machine was designed and grooving scheme for seeding was optimized by adopting a convex plate on the cylindrical surface of press wheel. The depth and width stability of the grooving operation was 87.35 % and 83.13 %, respectively. Experimental comparison between TTS and NTS was carried out in the field. The results showed that the seeding accuracy of NTS was 83.13 % and the variation coefficient of seeding uniformity was 15.12 %. The results also showed that accuracy of NTS was consistent with theoretical value, and was significantly better than that of TTS. Meanwhile, NTS can save 6% seeds and 5% fertilizer. The wheat emergence of NTS was robust with a wide belt and no leaking, the emergence rate of NTS was 90.46 % with higher plant height and more root quantity than that of TTS. This research fills in a literature gap for wheat precision seeding technology.