Development and Evaluation of a Pneumatic Dibble Punch Planter for Precision Planting

One of the best solutions of controlling soil erosion in conservation tillage is using punch planters which can plant through residue covers and gravelly soils with slope. In the present research, a precision dibble punch planter with pneumatic seed metering device was developed and evaluated. The laboratory and field tests were conducted to find the effects of forward speed and soil surface conditions on multiple index, quality of feed index, miss index, precision in spacing, and percentage of seeded holes. The results showed an increase in forward speed increased the multiple index, miss index and precision but decreased the quality of feed index and percentage of seeded holes. The field test showed that the soil condition had significant effect on multiple index and precision in spacing, but no significant difference was found in other parameters determined. The forward speed of 5.5 km/h had acceptable performance in three soil surface conditions.