Evaluation and Modeling of Camel Thorn (Alhagi Maurorum) Weed Cutting by Water Jet

Abstract

Due to the importance of weed control and the limitations of mechanical methods in some places, in this research the water jet cutting for weed control was investigated. The cutting tests were performed on camel thorn weed in Shahid Bahonar university of Kerman. The water jet pressure of 90 bars was achieved with the aid of a suitable pump. The cutting time was studied in a completely randomized factorial design experiment (CRD) with five replications. Factors of experiments are: stem diameter in 2 levels (smaller and larger than 5 mm), distance of spraying jet from weeds in 3 levels (10, 20 and 30 cm) and two types of plant holders: blade and plate. The results showed that stem diameter and jet distance from the weed stem had significant effects on cutting time (at the 1%). The mean comparison of parameters showed that with increase of stem diameter the cutting time increased and any increase in jet distance from the weeds decreased the cutting time linearly with R2=0.96 and R2=0.99 for small and large diameter weeds, respectively. The minimum cutting time was measured at 30 cm of the jet from small diameter of stems. A multivariate linear regression model was also proposed for cutting weed parameters. It can be concluded that due to the flexibility of water jet cutting for restricted places, hydrodynamic control of weeds is proposed as a complementary method and sometimes a competing substitute method.

Keywords

• Cutting
• Hydrodynamic
• Regression model