ISHS Acta Horticulturae 187: I International Symposium on Mechanization of Vegetable Production
SINGULATION OF SPROUTED SEEDS DURING FLUID PLANTING |
| Authors: | L.N. Shaw, H.H. Bryan, S.H. West |
| Abstract:
Crop establishment by planting sprouted seeds makes possible the germination of seeds under optimum conditions of moisture and temperature, the planting of only viable seeds, and the assurance of more uniform emergence that contributes to uniform crop maturity. To protect the fragile seeds and radicals, a gel or viscous fluid carrier is used to convey the seeds. The method presently used to plant the sprouted seeds is to mix them uniformly in the gel and then dispense the mixture into a soil furrow. Even with uniform mixing of the seeds in the gel carrier and continuous agitation, the distribution of seeds has not been uniform. This nonuniformity has required increased planting rates and thinning after emergence. Dispensing the seeds has been accomplished with the use of orifice metering devices from pressurized tanks, peristaltic pumps, special optical sorters, and pressurized systems with solinoid valves. The problem of uniform metering of small seeds remains and has impeded the acceptance of this plant establishment method in horticultural and silvicultural production. Another technique of singulating seeds and uniformly spacing them in a gel stream is under development at the University of Florida and the performance of this system and will be evaluated with vegetable and tree seeds. | |
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