Abstract:
Facility operation is often required to alleviate the soil-borne diseases that are caused by the long-term heavy stubble in greenhouses. Particularly, the planting pattern is mostly highly intensive in Chinese greenhouses at present. The long-term heavy stubble has led to a low nutrient balance in the soil. The pathogenic bacteria and insect eggs can continue to multiply and expand, thus infecting the roots and stems during crop reduction. Therefore, it is very urgent to consider soil flame disinfection. It is expected to integrate the disinfection, fine deep tillage, and ridge forming, in order to avoid the repeated operation of machinery. In this study, an integrated operation of "straight blade crushing - scraper throwing - flame disinfection – ridge forming" was adopted in the facility greenhouse. The optimal combination of operation parameters was also clarified to improve the quality of operation. A soil disinfection and ridge-forming machine was designed using a fine rotary flame. The main components included rotary tillage and soil crushing, ridge forming, flame disinfection, and electronic lighter devices. In the rotary tillage and soil crushing device, the blade roller of soil crushing was mainly composed of straight blades and scrapers arranged on the blade shaft, according to the spiral line. The major component was utilized to facilitate into the soil. The soil fragmentation rate and the efficiency of rotary tillage were also compared with the conventional rotary tillage blade roller using simulation. The results showed that the better performance of soil crushing blade roller was achieved during soil crushing and throwing, compared with the conventional one. There was an increase in the total number of soil fracture bonds caused by the soil-crushing blade roller. The better performance of flame disinfection was also obtained to optimize the parameters of the machine. Meanwhile, the heat demand for the soil disinfection was 958.23 kJ per second, and the heat supply of the machine was 978.72 kJ per second, which was greater than the heat demand. The soil was heated from 0-10 cm to 71.8 °C and from 11-14 cm to 51 °C, corresponding to the lethal temperature requirements of pathogenic microorganisms and root-knot nematodes, respectively. Single- and multi-factor field tests were carried out to verify the performance of the machine. The evaluation indicators were taken as the qualified rate of ridge type, as well as the insecticidal and sterilization rate. The influencing factors were the blade shaft speed, machine walking speed, and tillage depth. The best combination of operating parameters was obtained after optimization. The field tests showed that the primary and secondary factors on the machine's performance were ranked in descending order of the machine's walking speed, blade shaft speed, and tillage depth. The qualified rate of ridge type was 95.2%, while the insecticidal and sterilization rate was 82.9% when the blade shaft speed was 270 r/min, the machine walking speed was 0.63 m/s, and the tillage depth was 22 cm. Among them, the qualified rate of ridge type fully met the ridge standard, while the insecticidal and sterilization rate was close to the national standard. The operating cost and CO
2 emission of the machine were compared with the dazomet mechanical soil disinfection. The operating cost was RMB 4 543 yuan per hectare, thus saving RMB 7 087 yuan per hectare, compared with the dazomet mechanical soil disinfection. The CO
2 emission was 1 341 kg per hectare, indicating the promising prospect of application. The finding can also provide guidance for the practical application of the facility greenhouse, particularly for the soil disinfection and ridge-forming machine using a fine spiral flame.