Development and Performance Evaluation of a Precise Application System for Liquid Starter Fertilizer while Sowing Maize

• Main Authors: Changchang Yu, Qingjie Wang, Xinpeng Cao, Xiuhong Wang, Shan Jiang, Shaojun Gong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-09-01
• Series: Actuators
• Subjects: liquid starter fertilizer; fertilizer utilization efficiency; precision fertilization; precise application system; length of liquid starter fertilizer; amount of liquid starter fertilizer
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/10/9/221

At present, liquid starter fertilizer (LSF) application technologies experience problems with low fertilizer utilization efficiency. In this study, we adopted a method of precise application of LSF near the seeds on seed bed in point form during sowing. A precise application system that can detect seed information in real time and control the solenoid valve to open automatically was developed for this method. The LSF supply system and detection control system were studied in detail. Field experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the precise application system in terms of operation quality (qualified index of the length of the LSF, QIL; the amount of the LSF, FA; and qualified index of the distance between the seeds and the LSF, QID) at forward speeds of 4, 6, and 8 km/h and pressures of 0.10, 0.15, 0.20, 0.25, and 0.30 MPa. The results indicated that QIL was 96.4%, the range of FA was 1.34 to 13.86 mL, and QID was 82.6%, which signifies the developed system meets the demands of precise LSF application. This method achieves the target of improving fertilizer use efficiency and provides a reference for developing fertilization devices for precisely applying LSF.