Golden Acres Nursery has credited the installation of a new automated transplanter for a doubling of plant production.
The firm invested £35,000 in equipment including XP600M mechanical transplanting line from Hamilton Design, an installation which it says has upped production of plugs from 43,000 to over 100,000 plants per day. That equates to around four million plant per year.
GAN has also upgraded an existing machine to help boost capacity. Both machines will be used from August to November and February to May each year.
The XP600M TEA transplanter can be operated with between three and eight independently-controlled heads which pick up and transplant the plugs. The computer automatically selects the most efficient number of heads for each job.
It requires just two operators, one to load trays and label and the other to unload and watch for any occasional misses. The line is computer controlled for accuracy and versatility and can transplant from almost any plug tray to any pot or pack. Pick-up, planting depth and speed can all be varied while the machine is working.
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