Planters Mechanical vegetable planter?

[sweettractors]

We have 4-5 of these used units. Some customers use the metered water feature and some dont--Prices run from $395 (older units) to $995 (late model with poly barrell units)--Mid price range unit shown in picture.--Ken Sweet

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Ken, can I pull one of those units with a lightweight 30hp Kubota B2910 or a 24hp New Holland TC24? It doesn't look like it would require much power at all to pull a 1 row planter through a field. Even the units with 55 gallon drums as water tanks can't be all that heavy. Seems like most of the weight on the unit would be if a mother in law decided to try out the seat. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[redlevel]

We have planted literally millions of cabbage, collard, and sweet potatoe plants with units similar to the one in the picture. That planter, by the way, isn't designed to plant "potted" or speedling type plants. It is designed to plant bare-root plants. The planter pictured in the other thread is designed to punch holes in plastic mulch and drop in plants with growing medium on the roots. Some GA farmers use that type planter for watermelons. I don't know about now, but the two largest producers of mechanical transplanters used to be Holland and Mechanical (yes, that is a brand name) They are both in Holland, Michigan.

Practically speaking, I would say you would need to be planting over 10,000 plants to justify a mechanical planter. Under that figure, you can hire a little labor for a couple of days and get the job done just as well.
I realize that if practicality were an issue, many of us wouldn't have half the tractors or equipment that we do.

 

[redlevel]

Another thing to keep in mind is if your tractor will go slow enough. The old Fords (8n 9n 600 etc.) are much too fast in their lowest gearing and throttle setting. We mostly used MF 135's, and their lowest gear range and throttle setting is perfect. To give you some perspective for speed: planting cabbage plants 12" apart, with two feeders on each unit, the tractor moves at a very slow walk. I could easily get off the tractor and walk around behind the planters to see if they needed adjusting, then walk back and get on the moving tractor. Our planters were pull type, not lift type. They attached to a draw bar between the two lower links, and planting depth was adjusted using the tractors position control. At the end of row, the operators pulled a large lever to lift the planting units out of the ground. We tried the 3pt hitch types, and they were never as satisfactory as the pull types.

These bare root type planters also work pretty well for sprigging hybrid bermudagrass in a prepared field.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

<font color="red"> . That planter, by the way, isn't designed to plant "potted" or speedling type plants. It is designed to plant bare-root plants. The planter pictured in the other thread is designed to punch holes in plastic mulch and drop in plants with growing medium on the roots </font>

Yup, I realize that there are different types, I just figured that I would find one that would suit my purposes and then work with local garden center we get plants from to have them start them for us and provide them in whatever fashion we required depending on the planter we might end up with.


<font color="red"> Another thing to keep in mind is if your tractor will go slow enough. </font>

Yup, both of them are hydrostatic so I could creep along at an absolute crawl.

 

[SoloDotCom]

Man does that jar the old memory! Looks just like the one we used to plant sweet potatoes here in south louisiana. Haven't seen one in 30 years. Planted about 500 acres between ours and my uncle's. It took some coordination to get the plants in those paddles, but the incentive to learn was if you couldn't plant well enough on the planter, you were elected/forced to walk behind the thing and replace skips. I did my best to learn fast!

 

[SoloDotCom]

We used a Farmall 140 with the 2pt hitch and it would lift it with two people on it. The water supply was a 55 gal drum mounted on the front or side with a hose run to the planter.

 

[PineRidge]

Bob since when do you need a reason or even an excuse to spend a few bucks? Most of the extra food that you are planting goes to charity anyway so if this is something that you feel the need to do then by all means go for it.

The majority of TBN members including myself can't justify the $$$$ that we have tied up in equipment, so let's chalk the investment up to "recreation purposes". /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[sweettractors]

Bob, if you fill the barrell up, you will be 800 lbs + the weight of the machine (300)+ the weight of the operator/operators. In your situation, we would not fill the tank all the way up and have the operators get off the unit at the end of the rows, while making the turn around for the next row. --Ken Sweet

 

[sweettractors]

<font color="blue"> That planter, by the way, isn't designed to plant "potted" or speedling type plants. It is designed to plant bare-root plants. </font>

Mechanical and Holland, actually do offer finger extentions for the planter I picture, that allow the transplanting of speedling plants--We have put in Millions of spedling "cell" tobacco plants thru these machines--Ken Sweet