RAISED PLANT BED FORMING BY PALLET HANDLE OF RIDGE DIGGER FOR GARDEN STRAWBERRY CULTIVATION
Industrial cultivation of strawberrys is highly developed in the Central and South regions of Russia due to advanced technologies implementation, based on the use of modern agrotechnical practices that ensure the fullest realization of the productivity potential. Garden strawberry is preferably grown on raised plant beds, the advantage of which is the convenience of care and harvesting, ventilation and warming of the root zone, the convenience of placing a protective film and local irrigation, removal of excess moisture. Plant beds are formed by a mounted tool equipped with working bodies for raking the soil, leveling the ridge from above on the sides, covering with a film and local irrigation. The useful area is only the upper platform of the ridge, and the rest of the area is occupied by side slopes and row spacings. The objective of the theoretical study is to determine the rational values of the width of the working body in the form of a vertical flat plate placed at an angle to the direction of movement, and its depth of digging in the soil. The size and shape of the pallet handle depend on these parameters, in particular, the width of the upper plant bed on which seedlings are planted, and its height above row spacings. An indicator of beneficial use of the field area has been introduced, which estimates the total size of the sown areas in relation to the entire field. Analytical equations from two arguments are derived, three-dimensional graphs are constructed and a chart of rational values of operating width of each vertical flat plate and the depth of its digging in the soil is compiled. According to the results of the calculation, it turned out that flat panel working bodies provide a large width of the planting plot with a good coefficient of use of the field area, but the height of plant bed turns out to be less than recommended. It is possible to use pallet handle with operating width of 28-30 cm with running depth of at least 14 cm, but at the same time the utilization factor of the field area reduces to 0.42-0.46.