Oriented onion sowing by a forked-roller sowing unit

Introduction. The existing sowing machines do not provide a single feeding of the bulbs with a planting (sowing) unit that leads to a violation of the agrotechnical requirements of planting bulbs. It is necessary to search new solutions to preserve the position of the bulbs in the furrow with the bottom down and their regularly spaced distribution. Materials and Methods. The article presents the design for a prototype for a planting machine equipped with a forked-roller sowing unit for orienting the onion-sowing into a furrow. Testing the forked-roller sowing unit were carried out on a flat area where the physical and mechanical properties of the soil were determined on the days of sowing, and the indices of the quality of the onion-sowing were determined. The study of the effect of the sowing machine speed on the quality of the onion-seed bulb landing was determined by the change in the translational speed of the sowing unit in the range of 0.8 m/s to 1.2 m/s with a variation interval of 0.1 m/s. The indicators of the quality of the planting of the bulbs were determined by the opening of the closed furrow. The results of laboratory-field studies of the planting machine prototype are presented. Results. The results of laboratory-field studies of a planting machine equipped with a forked-roller sowing unit for planting onion bulbs are presented. The optimal technological parameters are determined experimentally. It was determined the number of bulbs that are for up is 51 % and the regularity of planting by the forked-roller sowing unit - 79 %. These figures are provided at the forward speed of the planting machine VM = 0.9-1.0 m/s, the height of the fall of the bulb HA = 0.12 m, and the rotation frequency of the landing drum пб = 0.47 c-1. Discussion and Conclusions. The use of a forked-roller sowing unit makes it possible to increase the proportion of onions planted by bottom down by 200 %, and the uniformity of planting bulbs by 19 %, in comparison with a belt sowing unit.