Document Type : Original Article

Author

• davood mohammadzamani

Abstract

The present study designed, constructed, and evaluated a fully-automatic tomato transplanter. In this device, a step mechanism gradually guides the tray to the left, right, and down under the arm so that the pin lifter can be position to penetrate the soil in the cell to grasp a seedling. The arm then positions itself over the tube and releases the seedling in its soil pot. The seedling falls into the previously plowed furrow. To evaluate operation of the machine, field testing was conducted. Mechanical damage to seedlings, seedling establishment angle according to the vertical line, and seedling spacing on the row was investigated. Tests used a factorial randomized complete block design with three replications. The treatments consisted of traveling speed (1, 1.5, and 2 kmh^-1) and depth (5 and 10 cm). In each experimental unit of the block, the machine traveled the 22 m length to plant one row. Results showed that traveling speed, depth, and the interaction of distance between planted seedlings, seedling establishment angle, and mechanical damage to seedling was significant. Results indicated that the most appropriate traveling speed was 1 kmh^-1 and depth of planting was  5 cm. With a traveling speed of 1 kmh^-1, a theoretical capacity of 0.06 hah^-1 was determined for the single-row machine.

Keywords

• Automatic transplanting machine
• Transplanting tray
• Tomato seedling