Design and development of planter for tissue culture banana plantlets

Abstract

ABSTRACT newlineDESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF PLANTER FOR TISSUE CULTURE BANANA PLANTLETS newlineby newlineB. HARI PRASAD newlineDegree : Doctor of Philosophy (Farm Machinery and Power) newlineChairman : Dr. S.S.Sivakumar newlineProfessor and Head newlineDepartment of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering newlineAgricultural Engineering College and Research Institute newlineTamil Nadu Agricultural University newlineKumulur - 621712 newline2021 newlineTissue culture banana plantlet is used by farmers due to its superior mean plant height, time required for bunch emergence, time to harvest, average bunch weight when compared with conventional planting material. Traditional practice of manual planting requires labour as 120 man-hours-ha-1. Timely planting helps the farmers to maximize benefit and helps to increase the income. An attempt was made to develop tractor operated planter for tissue culture banana plantlets by picking the plantlets from pro-tray and dropping in the furrow. newlineThe physical and mechanical properties for three varieties of tissue culture banana plantlets namely Grand Naine (GN), Red Banana (RB) and Trichy Nenthran (TN) were studied. The mass of plantlet, pseudostem diameter near root plug and near first leaf, height of TC banana plantlet, height of pseudostem till the first leaf, pulling force and compressive resistance were observed to design the planter components. newlineThe planter was conceptualized with three major components namely plantlet supply mechanism for supplying plantlets in pro-tray for two rows, plantlet picking mechanism to pick and drop the plantlet into the furrow and planting mechanism which consists of furrow opener, ground wheel and furrow closer. newlinePlantlet supply mechanism consists of rubber belt conveyor to convey the plantlet in pro-tray. It is controlled by stepper motor which receives signal from micro-controller for actuation. The plantlet picking mechanism consisting two components namely stepper motor controlled manipulator and servo motor controlled gripper was designed and developed. Rotary encoder was used to convert mechanical rotation of ground