Sowing vertical-disc apparatus for seeding small-seed crops

Abstract

The determining factor for increasing the yield of agricultural crops is the quality of sowing, which is ensured by the coordinated work of the system: the sowing apparatus - seed pipe - coulter. The task of the sowing device is to consistently give out a given number of seeds to the seed pipe by the area of supply for this method of sowing. Serial seeders do not provide the minimum sufficient seeding rate for small-seed crops, which leads to overspending of expensive, scarce seeds and reduced yields due to thickening of the crop. Based on the results of the theoretical studies and physical modeling, a vertical disc seeder was developed, which ensures the seeding of small-seed crops. The sowing apparatus represents a disc with a diameter of 93 mm along the outer perimeter, which contains cells in the form of a sector of a semicircle with a radius of 3 mm, a depth of 2 mm. Laboratory studies on alfalfa seeds showed that when the disc rotates, the seeds begin to fall out of the cell under their own weight, when the cell is at an angle of 35° with respect to the horizontal line. To carry out field research, a seeder was built on a frame, in which seven seed sections with individual bunkers were installed in two rows. Seeding width is 0.9 m. The drive of the sowing units is carried out by chain transfer from the support wheel through the gearbox. The sowing discs are connected to the shafts by individual couplings, which made it possible to sow with a different width of the rows. The field experiment was conducted on the sowing of the zoned alfalfa Omskaya-7 with inter-row spacing of 0,15 m, 0,60 m, and 0,90 m in triplicate repetition. According to the results of the field experiment, it was found that the sowing disc with cells with a radius of 3 mm and a depth of 2 mm of 8 pieces on the disc, and its rotation frequency of 1,53 rpm, when sowing with different rows, consistently provided for 1 meter of sowing on average 33 plants at field germination of 84,4 %.