Development and Evaluation of an Innovative Garlic Clove Precision Planter

In this study an innovatively designed tractor-mounted, ground-wheel driven, triple unit, row crop precision planter capable of planting three rows of garlic (Allium sativum L.) cloves on each raised bed was designed, fabricated and tested. The major components of this planter include; chassis and transport wheels, lister-bedder unit, seed hopper, seed metering drum, sweeper, knocker, seed tube, furrow openers and seed coverers. The metering drums and sweepers are driven by two ground wheels through a chain drive system. Laboratory evaluation of the planter components, especially the seed metering mechanism revealed a satisfactory performance of the planter components, except a few modifications which were needed before conducting field tests. The performance parameters measured/calculated during the field tests included: seeding mass rate, seeding depth, seed spacing, miss index, multiple index and seed damage. The results showed that the new machine is capable of planting 220,000 plants ha-1 at the seeding depth and spacing of 12.3 and 22.7 cm, respectively. Also, miss index, multiple index and seed damage were measured as 12.23, 2.43 and 1.41 percent, respectively.