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An attachment to a tractor‐mounted seed‐spacing drill for applying granular formulations to small field‐plots
Author(s) -
THOMPSON A. R.,
PERCIVALL A. L.,
EDMONDS G. H.,
LICKORISH G. R.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7348.1983.tb02722.x
Subject(s) - drill , tractor , infestation , biology , carbofuran , mathematics , horticulture , agronomy , zoology , pesticide , materials science , physics , metallurgy , thermodynamics
SUMMARY Tractor mounted equipment is needed to deliver granular formulations of pesticides accurately to the soil in small‐plot trials in a manner comparable to commercial equipment. Inexpensive units incorporating a belt unit mechanism were designed and fitted to a Mk II Stanhay S‐870 Precision Seed‐Spacing Drill. The individual delivery belts were driven through a continuously‐variable reduction gearbox by the main drive shaft of the drill and pre‐weighed amounts of granules were placed along the belts. Insecticides and dose patterns could thereby be changed readily from plot to plot. In field assessments of uniform doses of fuller's earth granules delivered to single row, 4·8 and 10·3 m plots, the mean weights recovered were 94–98% of the target doses, S.E.'s being ±2% of the means. When 16‐fold, exponentially‐increasing doses were delivered, the weights recovered were generally within 10% of the target dose at any point within 0·2 m from the start and 0·3 m from the finish of the plot. The performance of uniform doses of carbofuran (on sand) and chlorfenvinphos (on Spanish Silical) against cabbage root fly on radish in 15 m plots showed that errors in loading were insignificant compared with the variability in pest infestation on the field plots. With doses increasing exponentially by c. 12‐fold applied to similar plots, the percentage of carrots or radish undamaged by carrot fly and cabbage root fly increased from 40–60% to 85–99·3%, the relationship between the log‐log proportion of undamaged roots and log‐dose being linear. The equipment allows free‐flowing, granular pesticide products to be applied to small plots of a wide range of row‐crops much more accurately than has hitherto been possible. A work rate of 24 plots h ‐1 was achieved by a team of two technicians and a tractor driver.