Performance Test of Fully Automatic Potato Seeding Machine by In-situ Process of Cutting Seeds

Purpose: To reduce the costs of potato seeds and labor of workers, a fully automatic in-situ seeding machine for cutting seed potatoes was developed. Methods: An experiment was conducted to evaluate the seeder performance of the prototype of potato planter by cutting seeds in farmlands from March to April 2017. The study tested the seeder performance at working speeds ranging from 0.28 to 0.45 m/s. The seeding rate and seeding distance were also investigated according to the planned distance between planted seeds from 20 to 30 cm, with 5 cm intervals. Results: Tests on the performance of the developed cutting blade on the automatic potato seeder show that whole potatoes should be used instead of half potatoes. The seeding rates were 88.8% and 82.5% for whole and half potatoes, respectively. When the tractor working speed was increased from 0.28 to 0.45 m/s, the successful seeding rate decreased from 98.8% to 96.3%, respectively. However, with planted seed d istances of 20, 25, and 30 cm, the successful s eeding r ates were near 98%. Conclusions: The developed automatic potato seeder can to improve the labor productivity and cultivation environment of potato farms by the mechanization of the seeding process, which is currently associated with high-labor, -costs, and -hours. Therefore, based on this study, the developed automatic potato seeder provides the mechanization necessary for improved potato cultivation conditions in farmlands.