Design and Development of Tractor Operated Garlic Harvester with Oscillating Soil Separator

A six-row oscillating-type garlic harvester was designed and developed for timely harvest of garlic crop. The developed garlic harvester consisted of a digging unit and a soil separating unit. The digging unit consisted of a rectangular shaped digger blade with length, width and thickness of 900 mm, 200 mm and 10 mm, respectively. The soil separation unit had an oscillating rake of 1000 mm length and 900 mm width with 10 mm diameter rods spaced at 50 mm. PTO power was used to operate the soil separator at constant amplitude of 10 mm with 540±10 rpm of a camshaft. The machine performed satisfactorily during field evaluation in sandy loam soil. The highest harvesting percentage was 98.07% with mean damage of garlic bulb of 4.23%, maximum soil separation index of 0.20, average power requirement of 5.74 kW and field capacity of 0. 32 ha.h⁻¹ with field efficiency of 80 per cent.