Suitability of five lentil cultivars for mechanical harvesting

摘要

An experiment was conducted during 2000 in lentil growing season to evaluate the possibility of harvesting five improved local lentil varieties mechanically. The parameters selected, were the length of the plant above the ground, the height of the lowest pods on the plant, the force needed to pull up the plant roots, and plant root length attached to the plant after pulling. The results showed that the plant height was not significantly different from one variety to another at a significant level of 5 percent. At physiological maturity, the plant height above the soil surface averaged 18 cm. The height of the lowest pods on the plants ranged from 9.5 cm and a standard deviation of 4.98 for Filip 91-9L cultivar to 12.77 cm and a standard deviationof 2.53 for Jordan 3 cultivar. The force measured by a spring scale needed to pull up the plants averaged 25 N. The length of the plant portion below the soil surface averaged 5.5 cm. The height of the lowest pods on Jordan variety plants above the soilsurface averaged 12 cm, indicating that a mechanical cutting device could be used to harvest plants. On the other hand, good land preparation and levelled soil free of stones is required to harvest Filip 91-9L mechanically.