Development of Planting Machine for Chrysanthemum Cuttings

Abstract

A planting machine for chrysanthemum cuttings, which removes the lower-leaves and plants the cuttings in a 200-hole plug tray, was developed. The machine is composed of a supply unit, lower-leaf removal unit, conveying unit, and planting unit and is able to deal with standard-type, spray-type and small-flowered-type chrysanthemums. The lower-leaf removal unit removes the lower-leaves by the shearing force of the slit after the rotation of the brush and the up-down movement of the cutting send the lower-leaves under the slit. As a result of performance experiments, the machine could remove the lower-leaves at the rate of approximately 0.5leaf/plant, and the misplanting rate was 0.3%-4.3%. The work efficiency, moreover, was approximately 2, 000plant/(hr·person), which is the equivalent of two times the efficiency of manual planting.