Transplanting Machine Operation Analysis

Abstract

Transplanting has been used for most vegetables and ornamental plants to achieve better establishment and early maturing of the crops. Manual transplanting is slow and labour intensive. Semiautomatic transplanters are a low capital alternative that can increase productivity, speed of work and lower costs. In the present paper a comparison between the manual and semi-automatic transplanting was carried out during field work. Leaks, cabbage and peppers were transplanted in parallel rows manually and mechanically. The results showed that the cost for automatic transplanting was 73-86 % lower than manual transplanting, while the operating performance was 32.7-38.5 % higher with the semiautomatic transplanter. It was also shown that the performance of the workers on the transplanter increased with experience gained while working continually for six working days.