Studies on Lifting type Digger for Root Crops (II)

Experimental lifting type digger

Abstract

At present, the harvesting method used for Baker's garlic bulbs is to cut off the root zone, together with loosening the sand with a digging blade attached to a power tiller. The plants are then pulled up by hand and surplus leaves and roots are cut off with a sickle. The lifting-type-diggers were designed and constructed, because of the advantage in positioning the bulbs for better cutting off of the leaves and root zone.
The results of the test run of the trial diggers and some fundamental experiments in Baker's garlic and garlic fields are summarized as follows.
Baker's garlic
1. The condition of the moisture content in the sand was found to be one of the most important factors affecting harvesting under the growing of leaves of the plants, as shown in Fig. 9 (a), (b).
2. It was investigated that the position of the digging blade in relation to the grasping- point of the lifting belts influenced the operation of experimental diggers.
3. Using lifting method (A) (Fig. 5), when the field moisture content ω (%) increased from 3.7 to 6.2, Ws/W which is the rate of the sand weight Ws(g) attached to the root zone to the plant weight Ws (g) increased from 1.9 to 3.0. When moisture content is fixed ω=6.2%, it was about twice Ws/W of lifting method (B) and (C) compared with that of lifting method (A).
Garlic
It is recognized that the lifting type diggers have future potential to the harvesting of garlic, because the plant has a straight and strong stalk.