Performance of an Experimental Automatic Seedling Transplanter with Static Cassettes

Abstract

An experimental single-row automatic transplanter that drops bare-plug seedlings from shipping modules into static cassettes, then into rotating dibbles that plant them, was tested in the field. Tests were performed at constant rates from 60 to 300 seedlings per minute, using sets of 60 or 100 pepper or tomato seedlings. All seedlings were transplanted correctly at 30 cm intervals in many of the tests. Short, sturdy seedlings are required by his transplanter. Future research should include varying rates of transplanting, increasing the number of seedlings planted in each test xun, adding the capability of some self-monitoring by the transplanter, and providing for start-ups after interrupted feeding of seedlings by errors or endof- row stoppages