Design, Development and Evaluation of a Pneumatic Planter for Sunflower and Sugar Beet Intercropping

One of the main problems in intercropping is the lack of suitable machinery‏. In this research, a new pneumatic punch planter has been developed and evaluated for intercropping of sugar beet and sunflower. The main components of sunflower pneumatic punch planter were chassis, punching unit, and seed transferring unit.‏ A unit of pneumatic planter fabricated by Trashkadeh Company Karaj (Iran) was removed and a unit of punch planter was incorporated on the toolbar instead and intercropping was performed. The experimental tests were carried out in a 4-ha field and the effect of traveling speeds of 3, 4 and 5 km/h on seed holes, seed depth, the number of germinated seeds and yield was evaluated. A completely randomized design at three speeds and three repetitions using Duncan’s Multiple Range Test was utilized for comparison uses. No variations in hole depth was observed at travel speed of 3 km/h; where the maximum germinated seeds were achieved as well as minimum variation in hole distances. The results showed that the use of pneumatic punch planter caused 9.69 and 12.45 percent increase in sugar beet and sunflower yields, respectively.