A Two-Row Semi-Automatic Sugar Beet Steckling Transplanter

摘要

Hand planting the sugar-beet stecklings in the second year is one of the major operations carried out by growers in the sugar beet seed production region of Iran, namely the Ardebeel province. It is therefore very important to minimize the time and labor involved in this process. Planting stecklings by a transplanter could be a promising solution. The design and development of a two-row semi-automatic sugar beet steckling transplanter are described. The sugar beet steckling transplanter is a mounted-type two-row machine. However, the metering mechanism of the stecklings is ground wheel driven to ensure that spacing within rows is independent of planting or tractor speed. The prototype transplanter is designed to plant the sugar stecklings with agronomically recommended within-row and between-row spacing of 50 and 65 cm, respectively. The operators sit on the transplanter and pick the stecklings from the hopper and feed them into the open jaws of the grippers of the metering disk. The transplanter simultaneously makes the ridges and placed the stecklings in the ridges straight and firmly to a selected depth of 15 cm and then covers up the soil around the planted stecklings. A pair of press wheels moving in oblique position follow and compress the soil around the stecklings. Analysis of the field test results showed that at a forward speed of 0.47 km h~(-1) and a field efficiency of 80%, the machine capacity of the transplanter was 0.5 ha day~(-1), The transplanting capacity of the machine was 14.2 stecklings per operator per minute.