Biometric and engineering properties of ginger rhizome towards the development of root crop harvester

Abstract

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe,) is one of the most important cash crop and principal spice of India and abroad. The biometric and engineering properties which are relevant to the study were measured for ginger rhizome. The biometric properties viz., number of leaves, height of pant, depth of rhizome, plant density, spacing, soil rhizome composite, rhizome weight, rhizome fingers per hill and weight of rhizome with plant and engineering properties which include both physical and frictional properties of ginger viz., size (major, minor and intermediate diameter), geometric mean, sphericity, rhizome index, surface area, bulk volume. bulk density, the angle of repose, coefficient of friction, angle of repose and texture (firmness). The mean values observed for biometric properties such as number of leaves, height of pant, depth of rhizome, plant density, spacing, soil rhizome composite, rhizome weight, rhizome fingers per hill and weight of rhizome with plant were 9.20, 39.50 cm, 18.15 cm, 10.60, 23.90 cm, 18.60 cm, 0.61 kg, 8.20 and 1.39 kg, respectively. The mean values for obtained for engineering properties of size (major, minor and intermediate), geometric mean, sphericity, rhizome index, surface area, bulk volume, bulk density, the angle of repose, coefficient of friction, angle of repose and texture (firmness) were (16.52, 9.75, 4.08 cm), 8.80 cm, 0.53, 42.18, 235.2 cm2, 211.20 m3, 491.82 kg m-3, 34.33 deg, 0.50 (stainless steel), 0.56 (plywood), 0.54 (GI) and 214.2 N, respectively. These properties are essential in the design and development of the digging unit and soil separator unit of the root crop harvester.