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Highlights

Intermittent fertilizer discharge equipment was designed to realize hole fertilizer application.

Abstract. Fertilizers are necessary for high crop yields. In mechanized application of starter fertilizer for tobacco, discharging the fertilizer immediately below the seedlings promotes root growth and nutrient uptake, resulting in a high utilization rate. This placement is called hole fertilizer application and is fertilizer-saving and environment-friendly. To meet the requirements of hole fertilizer application for crops with specific plant spacing, equipment to intermittently discharge fertilizer has been designed based on the structure of a fluted roller. To explore the influence of the structural and working parameters of the intermittent discharge equipment on the uniformity of hole fertilization and the accuracy of marking fertilizer positions, the fertilizer discharge process and marking process were simulated using a discrete element method based on theoretical analysis. The optimal combination of parameters was a tapered circular groove shape with three grooves, the rotational speed of the fluted roller was 30 rpm, and the center distance between two material bins was 40 cm. In the simulation, the coefficient of variation for single-hole fertilizer application was 3.39%, and the marking error was 1.86 cm. Bench tests were performed using the optimal combination of parameters to verify the simulation results. The intermittent discharge equipment was able to achieve hole fertilizer application and mark the fertilizer position. The coefficient of variation for single-hole fertilizer application was 4.35%, and the marking error was 1.95 cm. The bench tests proved that the discrete element method was feasible for optimizing the equipment parameters. This study provides a reference for developing hole fertilizer application equipment and control systems to improve fertilizer use efficiency.