Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Vacuum Seeder

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Andy Fellenz <artisanfarms AT gmail.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Vacuum Seeder
  • Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:42:21 -0500

With the vibro seeder I generally do 6-10 flats/hour from start to finish including putting soil in the flats, moving the planted flats to their greenhouse benches and watering them in.  I haven't done a time study to actually break down the components of the job, but a ball park estimate for seeding time, is probably <3 minutes/flat for a 200 cell flat and maybe a minute for a 50 cell flat.  Very small seeds or odd shaped seeds (like marigolds) take longer because they can be harder to singulate.  I do not use the seeder for larger seeds, like most cucurbits, as I have found that doing them by hand is just as fast if not faster than with the seeder.

For my high mix/low quantity greenhouse, the vibro sander has been very handy although it does take a little getting used to in terms of setting up the degree of vibration and angle at which you are holding the seeder to get the seeds to singulate and march off the wand at a uniform rate. 

Andy



On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 10:43 AM, Richard Robinson <rrobinson AT nasw.org> wrote:
On 12/31/2011 at 10:40:43 AM, Andy Fellenz wrote:
> I ended up selling the seeder to someone
> who grew less varieties and now use a Gro-Mor Vibro seeder

I've been wondering about getting one of these, especially for lettuce and other small
seeds. What's your estimate of time saved per flat planted, versus using fingers or
toothpick or dropping from the seed pack?


 Richard Robinson
 www.nasw.org/users/rrobinson/
 Hopestill Farm
 www.hopestill.com





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page