Abstract
An auger type metering mechanism which consisted of an auger type metering device, a seedling delivery tube, a furrow opener, a furrow closer, a power transmission system and a frame was developed for metering of paper pot seedlings for transplanting. The setup was evaluated in simulated field conditions (soil bin) in order to select the operating parameters of the metering device. Evaluation was carried out with pot seedlings of 10-15 cm height at five forward speeds i.e. 1.6, 1.8, 2.0, 2.2 and 2.4 km/h. Data on intra row spacing, angle of inclination of seedling, soil coverage and conveying efficiency (CE), feeding efficiency (FE), transplanting efficiency (TE) and overall efficiency (OE) were determined. The CE, FE, TE and OE were found to be higher than 90% for forward speeds up to 1.6 to 2.0 km/h. Further, the increase in forward speed above 2.0 km/h resulted the FE higher than 90%, however, the TE and OE reduced below 55%. Moreover, increase in the seedling tilting greater than 15% (angle of inclination of seedling >30o from vertical plane) was observed beyond the forward speed of 2.0 km/h. The developed auger type metering mechanism was found to be suitable for metering of vegetable pot seedlings up to the forward speed of 1.6 to 2.0 km/h effectively at a planting rate of 53 to 65 seedlings/min.
Highlights
In India, the 25-year temporal vegetable cultivation from the year of 1991-92 to 2014-15 shows that, increased trend of production (58.532 to 168.3 t) of about 187% over 70% increased cultivable area (5.593 mha to 9.541 mha) (Anon, 2016)
Evaluation of the auger metering unit was carried out using pot seedlings
A negotiation needs to be made between the seedling feed rate requirement and the maximum forward speed achievable, to run planter with acceptable damage of plantings in metering
Summary
In India, the 25-year temporal vegetable cultivation from the year of 1991-92 to 2014-15 shows that, increased trend of production (58.532 to 168.3 t) of about 187% over 70% increased cultivable area (5.593 mha to 9.541 mha) (Anon, 2016). Non-availability of labour during peak season and increased labour cost in last decade are bottlenecks in increasing area under vegetable cultivation (Pandey and Singh, 2004). Mechanical transplanters have been developed to overcome the problems in manual transplanting. These transplanters include devices for feeding, conveying and metering of a variety of vegetable seedlings. Semi-automatic transplanters were reported as successful for transplanting of vegetable seedlings, but they require significantly high number of labourers to feed the seedlings to the transplanter. To overcome the limitations of semi-automatic transplanter, automatic vegetable transplanters with suitable mechanisms to feed the seedlings to a metering device without any human intervention have been developed for plug and pot type seedlings
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
