Engineering Assessment of the Physical Properties of Carrot Seeds for Precision Seeders

The key to increasing carrot yield is to produce a quick and uniform harvest. Rapid early leaf growth and development of a strong root system will help minimize variability in morphological traits and increase carrot yield. Carrot seeds are small and irregular in shape. To achieve optimal density, pre-sowing seed treatment followed by single-seed sowing is necessary. The purpose of this study is to determine some physical properties of carrot seeds, namely size, sphericity, surface area, bulk density, true density, porosity, angle of repose and static coefficient of friction before and after seed grinding on the performance of various seeder units. The study is based on a laboratory experiment with the carrot variety NIIOH-336. The original carrot seeds with a moisture content of 9% had an average length of 4.19 mm, width - 1.81 mm, thickness - 1.09 mm. After grinding, the values are fixed at 3.28 mm, 1.75 mm and 1.06 mm, respectively. Grinding led to an increase in flowability, bulk density from 359 to 416 kg/m3, true density - from 1024 to 1086 kg/m3, seed roundness - from 0.45 to 0.63. The minimum unevenness of seeding between dispensers (3.3-3.4%) of seed fractions of 1.5-2.0 mm and 2.0-2.5 mm was established when sowing with a SONP-2.8 pneumatic seeder (mounted pneumatic vegetable seeder with working width 2.8 m). Knowledge of the physical properties of seeds is necessary when harvesting, processing, storing, encrusting, panning, priming, as well as sowing with precision seeders. Various types of cleaning, sorting and separating equipment can be designed based on the physical properties of the seeds.