Evaluation of seedbed preparation levels on performance of sugar beet planters

The performance of various types of planters generally used in planting sugar beet in Egypt were evaluated. These planters were locally fabricated planters, imported planters (type of Gaspardo), and pneumatic planters (type of Gamma 90). The influence of various planters on effective field capacity(Fed/h),field efficiency (%),germination ratio(%),uniformity of plant distribution through the row (%),and root yield(Mg/Fed)were investigated. Also, total energy consumed (kW.h/Fed) and operating cost (L.E/Fed) were estimated. All planters were evaluated and tested at three levels of seed bed preparation were chisel plowing two pass followed by land leveler denoted as treatment A, chisel plowing two pass followed by rotary and land leveler denoted as treatment B, and chisel plowing two pass followed by disk harrow and land leveler denoted as treatment C, four forward speeds of 2.5, 3.6, 5.4 and 7.2 Km/h and three planting depths of 1, 2, and 3 cm. The obtained results showed that, Mechanical planting by pneumatic planter gave the best results while, local planter was better than imported planter at all combination of experiment levels. Where, using pneumatic planters recorded the maximum effective field capacity of 3.15 Fed/h and field efficiency of 96%,when using forward speed of 7.2 km/h and planting depth of 1 cm. as well as maximum germination ratio and root yield of 91% and 28.6 Mg/fed when using forward speed of 2.5 km/h and planting depth of 1 cm. Also, maximum distribution uniformity of 88.5% recorded with pneumatic planter at treatment C, forward speed of 2.5 km/h and planting depth of 3 cm on the other hand , imported planter recorded minimum energy consumed of 29.15 kW.h/Fed were recorded with treatment C, forward speed of 2.5 km/h and planting depth of 1 cm. While, minimum operating cost of 16.41 L.E/Fed were recorded with treatment C, forward speed of 7.2 km/h and planting depth of 1 cm, respectively.