Transplanting

So I am going to do my best in explaining how this process works and all the information that goes with it. Questions please let me know and I will do my best to address them completely.

This first picture is the Italian tractor hooked up to the transplantor. Gold Nugget Farms (GNF) has had this transplantor for about 7 years. For the most part we have had no mechanical problems with it this season, lucky for me. This is the back view of the transplantor. As you can see it transplants four rows at a time.

This is the bench that the four "riders" sit on while transplanting. GNF replaced the original 4 individual seats with this bench to allow for a variety of staff sizing, as my employer put it, some are wider than others. It actually looks comfy to me, but I have actually never sat on the bench.

These are the four sets of "cups" that the transplants are dropped into. They turn in a counter-clockwise rotation at a specified rate we determine with a set of different sized gears. It depends on what we are transplanting as to what the distance is between transplants. Greens-which consists of colards and kale are spaced every 6 inches. Lettuce, Broccoli and Cabbage-are transplanted every 12 inches apart.

This is the transplant wagon as I call it. A homemade wagon that carries 288 trays of transplants. This serves as the transportation from the green house to the field for transplanting. There are four compartments, each compartment has eight rows and each row holds nine trays.

These are a couple of individual transplants, more specifically red leaf lettuce. This gives you an idea of the size of a single transplant when we transplant them in the field. At the time of field transplanting the plants are at 3 weeks from seeding.

This is an individual tray. Each small hole holds a transplant similar to the picture above. The tray holds a possible 300 transplants. Depends on how well the seeding went as to how many acutal plants are in the tray, but usually pretty good, lets say at least 95%. (oh this picture is sideways, sorry)

This is the transplantor filled with trays and ready to transplant. The transplantor has four carisels. Each carisel holds 5 trays, so a total of 20 trays. This is usually enough to transplant a whole bed that is .25 mile long. If I am correct each bed is approximately 7'2" wide.

So here we go. The transplantor is loaded with trays/plants. This is the cups that the plants are dropped into.

This is the shoe below the cup that kicks out the plants into the ground.

And this is the process in action. People placing plants into the cups and the plants in the ground. Lets grow some lettuce! Four people sit on the transplantor and four people walk behind to check a row to make sure there are no skips or doubles or problems. Depending on the soil condition as to how many problems we usually have with this.

And this is a picture my dad took while he was here visiting. Me driving the tractor at a very very slow rate of speed, while people transplant and check all transplants in the ground behind.

So now does everyone understand? Good.