Journal of Researches in Mechanics of Agricultural Machinery

Journal of Researches in Mechanics of Agricultural Machinery

Construction and evaluation of five rows of saffron corm planter

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Fatemeh Jafarzadeh
Ali Hassanpour
Adel Hosainpour
Department of Mechanical Biosystems, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
10.22034/jrmam.2025.14188.646
Abstract
Saffron is one of the most critical and valuable medicinal plants. The lack of mechanized planting of saffron corm and the high costs of labour in the limited planting time is one of the problems in the cultivation of this medicinal plant. The present study aimed to construct and evaluate a machine that can plant saffron corms at the desired intervals without having the corms damaged. For this purpose, first, a five-row planter machine with the ability to plant 5 to 10 tons of saffron corms per hectare was designed and developed. Then, under field conditions, two container volumes (full and half full) and two planting velocities (3 and 6 km/h) were examined using different planting indices. In the machine's structure, a continuous flow spoon chain feeder was installed at the bottom of the corms container, and the corms were led to the furrowers by five outlet ducts. The results of the saffron corm planter evaluation performed in field conditions showed that the spoon chain feeder was suitable for efficiency. The measurement of planting traits showed that with increasing velocity and decreasing the container volume, the distribution uniformity of corms around the mean of the obtained distances and around the set distance, uniformity of corm depth and feed quality index decreased; but the none-planting and multiple-planting indices and coefficient of variation of intervals increase. This machine can be replaced by labour, and it is better to use it at a speed of 3 km/h and in a modified container.
Keywords
Planting indices, Planting saffron corm, Corm planter, Container volume, Spoon chain feeder

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