DEVELOPING A MACHINE FOR FERTILIZING VEGETABLE CROPS WITH COMPOST

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assoc. prof. of Agric. Eng., Fac. of Agric. Eng., Al-Azhar Univ., Cairo, Egypt

2 Prof. and Head of Agric. mach. and Power Eng. Dept., Fac. of Agric. Eng., Al-Azhar Univ., Cairo, Egypt.

3 Prof. and Dean of Agric. Eng. Fac., Al-Azhar Univ., Cairo, Egypt

4 Prof. Emt. of Agric., Eng., Fac. of Agric. Eng., Al-Azhar Univ., Cairo, Egypt.

5 M.Sc. student, Fac. of Agric. Eng., Al-Azhar Univ., Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

The objective of the present work was to develop and evaluate fertilizing machine for vegetable to make under Egyptian condition. The fertilizing machine was evaluated versus four forward speeds (2.8, 3.2, 3.6, and 4.0 km/h), three feeding areas (50, 100, and 150 cm²), three fertilizing depths (15, 20, and 25 cm) and two bully diameters with land wheel (15 and 25 cm). The results showed that the highest productivity was 31.11 m³/fed; and 82.84% fertilizing homogeneous fertilizing obtained at 2.8 km/h forward speed, 150 cm² feeding area, 25 cm fertilizing depth and bully diameter with land wheel 15cm. The best result field efficiency was 85.12% and minimum specific energy 31.41kW.h/fed at obtained forward speed 4 km/h, 150cm² feeding area, 15 cm fertilizing depth and bully diameter with land wheel 15cm. The maximum consumption and operation cost was 128.78 LE/fed; and 5.79 LE/m³.

Main Subjects