2013 Volume 19 Issue 4 Pages 119-124
Semi-automatic transplanter (multi-row type for vegetable seedling) was developed by authors in 2003, and commercialized. In this study, we modified planting unit of the transplanter to improve accuracy, and investigated its performance. Results were as follows. The reformed transplanting unit was characterized by being handled with newly installed hinge lever instead of conventional hook method for opening and shutting of transplanting cups. Transplanting experiments in lettuce field were performed on the conditions that surface harnesses of ridge were both 22.7 kPa and 48.1 kPa, soil pulverization rate was 61.8 %, and soil water content by volume was 29.1 % (0〜5cm in depth) . The success rate of transplanting by the reformed unit was 98.8〜100 %, which was higher than by the conventional unit 66.3〜99.8 % , and also the transplanting depth became more stable.
