Response surface modeling of low-cost pneumatic nursery protray seeder parameters for tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) seedlings Jadhav M L1,*, Mohnot P2, Jagadale M H3, Nandede B M4 Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh, 362 001, Gujarat, India 1AICRP on Ergonomics and Safety in Agriculture, College of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli 2Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh 3Mechanical Processing Division, ICAR-National Institute of Natural Fibre Engineering and Technology, Kolkata 4Director, Southern Region Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute, Anantapur *Corresponding author: jadhav16maahi@gmail.com
Online Published on 4 January, 2024. Abstract The performance of pneumatic nursery protray seeder was evaluated in terms of miss seeding, single seeding, multiple seeding, seeding efficiency, and seeder output for different levels of mouthpiece diameter and suction pressure for tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). With a mouthpiece diameter of 0.84 mm and suction pressure of 6.2 kPa, it was found that 59.25% of single seeding, 97.69% seeding efficiency, and a seeder output of 67 cells/min were suitable for tomato seedlings. The pneumatic protray seeder resulted in a saving of  15.04 per 1000 cells sown compared to manual seeding. The payback period was 104.7 hours (3.58% of the expected life of pneumatic protray seeder). Top Keywords Mouthpiece diameter, Nursery protray seeder, Optimization, Suction pressure, Suction unit, Seedlings. Top |