Design and development of manually operated gladiolus planter

Abstract

Floriculture is an age-old farming activity in India having immense potential for generating self-employment and income to farmers. However, the cost of cultivation of flower is high as compared to cereal crop. Level of mechanization for different field operations is one but foremost reason for the higher cost of cultivation. As most of the Indian farmers are marginal and small, a need for manually operated gladiolus planter was felt. The geometric properties of gladiolus corm were determined for designing the seed metering system and seed hopper of the planter. The planter was evaluated in the field when pulled by two persons as a power source and guided by a person. The coefficient of variation and highest deviation from the mean spacing was observed as 12.93% and 2.65 cm respectively. The maximum coefficient of uniformity of 90.59 % was observed for a nominal corm spacing of 15 cm at 0.56 kmh^-1 forward speed. An average MISS percentage was observed as 2.65 and 2.25 for nominal corm spacing of 15 and 20 cm. The multiple index was zero for two levels corm spacing and forward speed of operation.The QFI was found in the range of 97.2 and 97.9 percent. The average field capacity of the planter was observed as 0.02 hah^-1.The average draft requirement of the planter was found as 821 ± 50.3 N.