Development of a walk-behind type hand tractor powered vegetable transplanter for paper pot seedlings

Kumar, G. V. Prasanna; Raheman, Hifjur

doi:10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2011.08.001

Cited by 73 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Mechanical transplanting requires tall plants (Kumar and Raheman, 2011;Nandede et al, 2013). The height of the seedlings is an important parameter for the efficient feeding, conveying, and planting of soil block seedlings in vegetable transplanters (Kumar and Raheman, 2011).…”

Section: Experiments and Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The height of the seedlings is an important parameter for the efficient feeding, conveying, and planting of soil block seedlings in vegetable transplanters (Kumar and Raheman, 2011). Keeping this fact in mind, three values of  were chosen: 1.55, 2.33, and 3.10, with the height of the plants in the range of 10-20 cm.…”

Section: Experiments and Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The planting of seedlings in an upright orientation is very crucial for their growth and yield (Kumar and Raheman, 2011). Therefore, vegetable transplanters include various planting devices, such as pockets (PAU, 2004), vertical descending cups or buckets (Munilla and Shaw, 1987;Kim et al, 2001), split cone cups, or transplanting discs (Harrison et al, 1990) to place the plants in an upright orientation in the soil.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In most of these machines, conveyor-type metering devices have been used. Kumar and Raheman (2011) employed a horizontal conveyor with vertical flights as the metering device. The flights conveyed the individual paper pot seedlings in an upright orientation by pushing them over a plate toward the seedling drop tube.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The tall plants and heavy soil blocks around the root masses of the plants ensures the planting of the seedlings in an upright orientation. Kumar and Raheman (2011) used individual paper pot seedlings of 65 to 74 g of weight (including the weight of the soil and the pot) and 12 cm in plant height. Mohanty et al (2015) reported plants of a height of 15 to 25 cm as most suitable for mechanical transplanting.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Development of a Hopper-Type Planting Device for a Walk-Behind Hand-Tractor-Powered Vegetable Transplanter

Dihingia

Gautam

Sarma³

2016

Journal of Biosystems Engineering

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Purpose: In order to ensure that vegetable seedlings (with a soil block around their roots) are planted in an upright orientation after metering in a vegetable transplanter, they need to be dropped freely from a certain height. The walkbehind hand-tractor-powered machines do not have sufficient space to drop the seedlings from that height. In the present work, a hopper-type planting device was developed for the walk-behind hand-tractor-powered vegetable transplanter to ensure that the soil block seedlings are planted in an upright orientation. Methods: Various dimensionless terms were developed based on the dimensional analysis approach, and their effect on the planting of soil block seedlings in an upright orientation (planting efficiency) was studied. The optimum design dimensions of the hopper-type planting device were identified by the Taguchi method of optimization. Results: The ratio of the height of free fall to the sliding distance of the seedling on the surface of the hopper had the highest influence on planting efficiency. The planting efficiency was highest for plants with a height 15 ± 2 cm. The plant handling Froude number, in interaction with the design of the hopper-type planting device, also significantly affected the planting efficiency. Of the hopper design factors, the length of the slide of the seedlings on the surface of the hopper was most important, and induced sufficient velocity and rotation to cause the seedling to fall in an upright orientation. An evaluation of the performance of the planting device under actual field conditions revealed that the planting efficiency of the developed planting device was more than 97.5%. Conclusions: As the seedlings were fed to the metering device manually, an increase in planting rate increased missed plantings. The planting device can be adopted for any vegetable transplanter in which the seedlings are allowed to drop freely from the metering device.

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Section: Experiments and Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Experiments and Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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