The invention disclosed is a plant maintenance apparatus to move along a plant or line of plants. The apparatus has a support frame to connect to a prime mover to move the apparatus. A sensing member is mounted from the frame, to contact and be deflected by the plant as the apparatus is moved. A sensor to senses the deflection and if the deflection is above a threshold it issues a signal to an actuator. There is a near ground member, mounted from and moving with the frame. The near ground member acted on by the actuator, so that when the threshold is met the near ground member moves to a first position away from the plant when immediately adjacent thereto, and then moves to a second position once past said plant. The result is the near ground member can treat a ground or soil or otherwise at or near a plant at least when in the second position, including disturbing any non-desired plants on the ground, while moving away from and not disturbing the plant which is sensed and above the threshold when in the first position.

A method for micro-ridge mixed-sowing cultivation of dryland crops includes the following steps: S1: cleaning ditches and draining away water in dryland; S2: harvesting the preceding crop, leaving the stubble, smashing the stalks of the preceding crop, and then spreading the smashed stalks on the stubble; S3: trenching the dryland to form ecological trenches; S4: flattening the standing stubble and the smashed stalks on the seedbed surface to form an underlying surface, molding seed-fertilizer-soil compounds into a ridge shape and allowing the seed-fertilizer-soil compounds to fall on the underlying surface to form ecological ridges, wherein a plurality of ecological ridges are formed between adjacent ecological trenches, an ecological depression is formed between adjacent ecological ridges, and after sowing, an irrigation is carried out, including: draining water shortly after the irrigation, without leaving a water layer in the field.

A method for micro-ridge mixed-sowing cultivation of dryland crops includes the following steps: S1: cleaning ditches and draining away water in dryland; S2: harvesting the preceding crop, leaving the stubble, smashing the stalks of the preceding crop, and then spreading the smashed stalks on the stubble; S3: trenching the dryland to form ecological trenches; S4: flattening the standing stubble and the smashed stalks on the seedbed surface to form an underlying surface, molding seed-fertilizer-soil compounds into a ridge shape and allowing the seed-fertilizer-soil compounds to fall on the underlying surface to form ecological ridges, wherein a plurality of ecological ridges are formed between adjacent ecological trenches, an ecological depression is formed between adjacent ecological ridges, and after sowing, an irrigation is carried out, including: draining water shortly after the irrigation, without leaving a water layer in the field.

A ridge formation method includes the steps of: providing a sieve instrument immediately after a tilling unit configured to scrape soil to throw the soil backward while rotate a rotor having a plurality of soil scraping pieces to cause the tilling unit to travel, the sieve instrument configured to receive the thrown soil to perform a sieve operation; and moving the sieve instrument in a reciprocating manner in a traveling direction to generate an impact on the received soil so that the soil is finely grained, and to separate the finely-grained soil from other impurities, whereby the finely-grained and separated soil is allowed to pass through a sieve mesh and fall onto a ground so that the falling soil is accumulated on the ground so as to form the ridge substantially the same in width as the sieve instrument on the ground.

A ridge formation method includes the steps of: providing a sieve instrument immediately after a tilling unit configured to scrape soil to throw the soil backward while rotate a rotor having a plurality of soil scraping pieces to cause the tilling unit to travel, the sieve instrument configured to receive the thrown soil to perform a sieve operation; and moving the sieve instrument in a reciprocating manner in a traveling direction to generate an impact on the received soil so that the soil is finely grained, and to separate the finely-grained soil from other impurities, whereby the finely-grained and separated soil is allowed to pass through a sieve mesh and fall onto a ground so that the falling soil is accumulated on the ground so as to form the ridge substantially the same in width as the sieve instrument on the ground.

An agricultural implement mountable to a towing vehicle comprises a main mounting assembly, a toolbar slidably attached to the main mounting assembly, a plurality of row units mounted on the toolbar, a wand guidance system, and a control unit. The main mounting assembly is configured to be mountable to the towing vehicle. The wand guidance system is mounted on a selected one of the plurality of row units. The wand guidance system is configured to sense a position of the selected row unit relative to a first of a plurality of crop rows and generate a control signal based on the position of the selected row unit relative to the first crop row. The control unit is configured to adjust a lateral position of the toolbar relative to the main mounting assembly based on the control signal.

Implement apparatus may be configured to displace ground material. For example, an implement may include an extension member coupled to a roller apparatus. The extension member may be coupled to a mounting apparatus configured to mount each of a crumbler, a hipper, a bermer, a bermer, crumbler combination apparatus, or a chopping apparatus.

Implement apparatus may be configured to displace ground material. For example, an implement may include an extension member coupled to a roller apparatus. The extension member may be coupled to a mounting apparatus configured to mount each of a crumbler, a hipper, a bermer, a bermer, crumbler combination apparatus, or a chopping apparatus.

A method of navigating an agricultural implement through a field in an operative direction as it is being towed by a tractor. The method comprises providing the implement with a main mounting assembly, which is mountable to the tractor and has a stationary main beam, and a toolbar movably supported on the main beam in a lateral position so as to be shiftable laterally relative to the operative direction to align the toolbar relative to crop rows, the toolbar including row units configured to pass between crop rows; obtaining an image of the field with a camera; segmenting the image to identify one or more of the crop rows extending in the operative direction within a field of vision of the camera; and adjusting the lateral position of the toolbar to maintain the row units between the one or more crop rows while avoiding damage to the crops.

A vibratory backfilling device includes a mounting frame, vertical base plates, cam link mechanisms and a soil beat actuator. The entire backfilling device is mounted on a rear cross beam of a transplanter, and follows the transplanter to move forwards between ridges; two sides of the mounting frame are connected to the vertical base plates respectively, and the cam link mechanism is mounted on the vertical base plate; and the soil beat actuator is rotatably arranged on the vertical base plate, an upper end of the long plate inclines towards an inner side of the vertical base plate and is hinged to a link rod of the cam link mechanism, and the soil beat actuator is driven by the cam link mechanism and continuously vibrates and beats two sides of the ridge to cause ridge soil to flow back and backfill a hole of the pot seedling.