Efficacy of Sweet Potato Transplanting Machine for Different Cultivation Systems in Northern China

Hui Li, Tengfei He, Hu Liu, Song Shi, Baoqing Wang, Jilei Zhou (), Xuechuan Liu, Guojian Wei and Rongfang Zhang
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Hui Li: Shandong Academy of Agricultural Machinery Sciences, Jinan 250100, China
Tengfei He: Shandong Academy of Agricultural Machinery Sciences, Jinan 250100, China
Hu Liu: Shandong Academy of Agricultural Machinery Sciences, Jinan 250100, China
Song Shi: Shandong Academy of Agricultural Machinery Sciences, Jinan 250100, China
Baoqing Wang: Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan 250100, China
Jilei Zhou: Shandong Academy of Agricultural Machinery Sciences, Jinan 250100, China
Xuechuan Liu: Shandong Academy of Agricultural Machinery Sciences, Jinan 250100, China
Guojian Wei: Shandong Academy of Agricultural Machinery Sciences, Jinan 250100, China
Rongfang Zhang: Huang Huai Hai Key Laboratory of Modern Agricultural Equipment, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Jinan 250100, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: China is the world’s biggest producer of sweet potato ( Ipomoea batatas (L). Lam.), and approximately 55% of the global supply is from China. Raised beds (RB) and raised beds mulched with plastic film (RBF) are the two main sweet potato cultivation systems now widely used in northern China. Planting placement of multiple nodes buried in shallow soil layers is additionally required for the sweet potato cultivation to achieve higher yields and reduce pests and diseases in this area, which increases the difficulty of transplanting mechanically. Therefore, a 2CGFS-2 compound sweet potato transplanter was developed, and the key parameters of slips transplanting apparatus were designed in this paper. Furthermore, its performance was investigated over two years under four treatments with different sweet potato varieties (Jishu 26 and Pushu 32) and cultivation systems (RBF and RB). The results showed that the missing seedling rate and qualified rate of transplanting population for each treatment by using 2CGFS-2 compound transplanter were <1.2% and >95.0% in both 2020 and 2021, while the mean values of the plant spacing variation coefficient and the qualified rate of transplanting depth during 2020–2021 were 4.53% and 96.28%, respectively. The length of the sweet potato slip inserted into the soil by the 2CGFS-2 compound sweet potato transplanter was almost the same, ca. 195 mm. The accurate placement of the sweet potato slips reduced the differences in tuber weight per plant caused by manual transplanting. These results are of considerable importance for RB and RBF sweet potato cultivation systems.

Keywords: sweet potato; cultivation systems; transplanting machine; transplanting quality; yield (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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