2010 - Volume #34, Issue #6, Page #28
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He Builds His Own Vegetable Planting Equipment
Martin grows vegetables and melons for his market garden business. He recently converted parts from an old row crop cultivator into a low-cost, 3-pt. mounted plastic laying machine. It puts down a 4-ft. wide strip of agricultural plastic that blocks weeds and warms up the soil.
After the plastic has been laid down, another home-built machine does the planting with a big spiked wheel to make 2 1/2-in. dia. holes in the plastic that go 3 in. deep in the ground, and automatically injects water into the holes at the same time. Two workers sit on back of the machine and poke small plants into the holes.
"The plastic cover gets early planted crops up and growing faster. The warmed-up soil gives vegetables spurs growth and the plastic helps control weeds," says Martin.
The plastic-laying machine was built on the frame of an IH 4-row cultivator. The edges of the 6-mil plastic are covered by dirt as the plastic unrolls, by disc hillers off another cultivator.
The planter was built using parts from an old combine and spring tooth field cultivator. A 3-ft. high, 8-in. wide steel wheel mounts at the center of the machine and has pyramid-shaped metal "spikes" welded onto it at 18-in. intervals. There's a small hole in the wheel under each spike. The interior of the wheel is open on one side and is divided into compartments. Water is pumped out of a tank on front of the tractor and automatically fed into the open side of the wheel. As the wheel pokes holes into the plastic, the water exits the wheel through the holes under the spikes.
To plant, the workers sit on metal seats on back of the machine and grab seedlings from trays mounted on rectangular metal holders.
"Each hole gets a couple cups of water. The water really helps û I've had up to a 98 percent survival rate on some of my crops," notes Martin.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Richard Martin, 225 South Ringold St., Boone, Iowa 50036 (ph 515 432-5147).
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