Lentil is considered one of the most leguminous crops, sensitive to over wet a well as to over-dry conditions. A conventional seed drill (which originally designed for planting on the flat ground) was modified in order to form ridges during sowing operation. It was provided with six ridging bodies to make five soil ridges. They were fixed on the drill frame in front of the furrow openers. This developed mechanism can be allowed ridging planting technique and give different plant distribution pattern.
Field experiments were carried out at El-Gemmieza Research Station El-Gharbia Governorate to study the effect of some different planting methods [conventional seed drill and modified seed drill (ridger- seeder), depth of ridger (0.08, 0.12, and 0.16 m), forward speeds (3.15, 4.1, 5.32, and 6.28 km/h) and number of plant rows per ridge (single, double, and three row plant/ridge) on lentil crop yield.
The results of the present investigation indicated that:
- The modified drill (ridger-seeder) had significant increase than conventional drill in average yield.
- 0.12m surpassed the other ridger depths in straw and seed yield/fed.
- The modified drill had significant increase compared to traditional drill in plant height, germination ratio, and number of branches/plant. Also, it increased the seed yield of about 20% compared with conventional drill.
- The highest yield (1050 and 2270 kg/fed., seed and straw respectively) was obtained under ridger-seeder at 0.12 m ridging depth with two row plant per ridge.
In general, it can be stated that raising lentil yield can be achieved by using ridger-seeder with 0.12 m ridger depth, forward speed of