Development of a No-till Transplanter for Walk-behind Tractors

Highlights Walk-behind tractor. No-till vegetable transplanter. Small local garden type farming. Transplanting precision. Abstract. A no-till vegetable transplanter powered by a walk-behind tractor was developed to reduce heavy physical labor, that is often required on small scale farming operations. Currently, there are no existing commercially available no-till transplanters made for walk-behind tractors. This concept can be an important factor in improving field transplanting operations by reducing time and human labor. The original patented concept was heavy (103 kg) and included complex mechanical assemblies to be powered by the tractor’s PTO (power-take-off). It was designed for walk-behind tractors not equipped with a battery and alternator to charge the battery in which newer walk-behind tractors are equipped. Therefore, the original functional idea of the transplanter did not change, but the transplanter’s components were modified and simplified by substituting mechanical drives and control mechanisms with a single 12-V electric motor allowing variable rpm (infinitely variable spacing) and reversible direction of rotation. The improved version of the transplanter has fewer components and weighs only 83 kg, a decrease of 20 kg. Powering the transplanter electrically (not mechanically) reduced overall weight by 19%. This new version of a modular design allows easier and faster transplanter fabrication, giving farmers an option to fabricate their own transplanter to reduce costs and increase adoption of no-till vegetable systems with cover crops. Keywords: 12-V DC variable speed reversible electric motor, No-till transplanter, Power take-off (PTO), Walk-behind two-wheel tractor.