Study the Physical Properties of Fertilizers and Plant Basin Parameters to Design the Tractor Operated Round Basin Maker cum Fertilizer Applicator for Orchard Crop

M. Vinayak *

College of Agricultural Engineering Madakasira, India and Dr. NTR College of Agricultural Engineering Bapatla-522 101, India.

B. Hari Babu

College of Agricultural Engineering Madakasira, India.

A. Ashok Kumar

AICRP on FIM, Department of Farm Machinery and Power Engineering, India and Dr. NTR College of Agricultural Engineering Bapatla-522 101, India.

M. Madhava

Dr. NTR College of Agricultural Engineering Bapatla-522 101, India and Food Processing Technology, India.

N. Ratna Kumari

Department of Horticulture Agricultural College, Bapatla-522 101, India.

C. Ramana

RARS Tirupati-517502, India.

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.


Abstract

The physical form of fertilizer production is of extremely importance, both agronomically and in regard to satisfactory handling, transport, storage, and finally application to the field. The improvement of equipment for handling, storage, and application of granular fertilizer require a proper understanding of material properties and flow behavior. The most common problems encountered in fertilizers were caking, poor flow ability, segregation, dustiness and excessive hygroscopicity due to differences of physical properties. The physical properties such as moisture content, angle of repose and bulk density as important in designing the hopper and metering roller of fertilizer plays an important role in the storage, transport and application of fertilizer. The urea, Ammonium phosphate Sulphate, complex fertilizers and fertilizer ratio (10 26 26) per one orchard tree should be applied yearly trice based on crop requirement. The angle of repose value ranges 28° -37° the hopper angle was decided. For that, to flow the fertilizer freely from the hopper, the inclined angle of the hopper should be greater than 40° respectively. The lowest bulk density and tapped density observed 0.648 g cm-3 and 0.708 g cm-3 respectively. Coefficient friction for galvanized Iron (GI) material is very high So, based on the obtained results, a fertilizer applicator for orchard crops has been designed. The basin diameter of orchard palm varies from 1500 mm to 1750 mm the mean of 1650 mm. The root zone depth of orchard crop varies from 150 to 180 mm at radius of 1800 mm from the base of palm. The mean 171.66 mm hence depth of operation of machine was selected as 150 mm such that the machine does not interfere with root zone of orchard trees.

Keywords: Orchard crops, fertilizers applicator, physical properties, angle of repose, density, friction, plant parameters, basin parameters


How to Cite

Vinayak, M., B. Hari Babu, A. Ashok Kumar, M. Madhava, N. Ratna Kumari, and C. Ramana. 2024. “Study the Physical Properties of Fertilizers and Plant Basin Parameters to Design the Tractor Operated Round Basin Maker Cum Fertilizer Applicator for Orchard Crop”. Journal of Scientific Research and Reports 30 (5):487-93. https://doi.org/10.9734/jsrr/2024/v30i51965.