Mechanical cultivation of tomato crop using a single row cultivator / [electronic resource].

Year book of Misr Society of Agricultural Engineering : The 20 th. Annual Conference of the Misr Society of Agricultural Engineering "Agricultural Engineering and Country Challenges"

Includes references.

The main aim ofthis research was to development a cultivator to fit the
conditions ofthe Egyptian agriculture in small and medium-sizedfarms.
The developed cultivator supposed to agitate soil along the furrow sides
to kill weeds. The field experiments were conducted in the farm offaculty
of agriculture, Al-Azhar University, Assiut. The machine was tested in
cultivating tomato. as an important source ofvitamins and an important
cash crop for smallholders and medium-scale commercial farmers.
Tomato crop (Florida 91) was planted by hand in beds, two rows per
bed. The width ofbeds was 100 cm and width ofthe furrow was 80 cm.
The cultivator consisted of engine, reduction gearbox and cultivation
rotary tines represented in a pair ofrotary tines one on the right side and
the other on the left side and mounted on a horizontal shaft powered by a
sprocket-chain at the midpoint of the shaft. A filrrow opener is attached
to the machine frame directly at the back of the cultivation tines. Two
steel rollers are assembled to the outer back sides of both sides of the
opener to press the agitated soil of the furrow side. The effect of soil
moisture content, cultivation depth and the ridger shape on fuel
consumption, plant damage and cultivation efficiency were studied. Soil
moisture content ofthe experimentalfield the range 35.~ to 21.9 %. Four
levels ofcultivation depths (2.75, 3.75, 4.75 and 5.75 cm) and two types
of the furrow opener (with and without rollers) were tested. The
experiments were done at possible forward speed for the labor to
maintain continuous operation 0.53 m/s (/.91 km/h) and kinematic index
(A.z = 0.10). The results showed that percentage ofdamaged plants wasless than 0.8 % and may rarely exceed 1.0 %. The maximum percentages
ofthe cultivation efficiency were 94.1 and 93.6 % using ma"timum stretch
of the tine edges ofthe ribbon (cultivation depths: 4.75 and 5.75 cm) at
21.90 % soil moisture content. The use of ridger rollers improve
cultivation efficiency. The cultivator performance was 0.8fed/h at 97.6 % efficiency. The minimum value offuel consumption was 0.858
IIh at 35.50 % soil moisture content under average cultivation depth of
2.75 em.

Summary in Arabic.