was RE: [AT] Towing now planters

[charlie hill]

In some parts of the country they call them tomato planters!   There should 
be some 2 row units left around but I don't go to many farm sales any more 
so I don't know for sure.  There were basically 3 different types.  The 
oldest cuts a small furrow in the top of the row, squirts some water in it 
every few inches and then closes the furrow back up.  Four people riding on 
it (2 for each row) "drop" the plant in the furrow at the same time the 
water squirts in.   Then they came along with one that does the exact same 
thing but the riders put the plant in a wheel full of "tongs", for lack of a 
better name, that dropped the plant in the furrow for you.  That type was a 
lot easier on the backs of the droppers and a bit more accurate too.  Then 
the 3rd type came along when farmers started growing their plants in 
greenhouses.  It was designed to hold trays of plants and the droppers took 
the plants out of foam trays and put them in the mechanism.  Prior to that 
plants were grown in beds in the ground and were pulled up by their roots 
and the dropper had a stack of plants in his lap that he had to fiddle 
through as he worked.  It seems to me that some of the later model ones were 
almost totally automatic with very little for the rider to do but that was 
long after I left the farm and I really don't know much about the newer 
ones.

David as far as those old metal hand plantes go, I'd much rather have a 
bucket full of plants, a bucket full of water, a dipper and a wooden peg.  I 
hate those old metal monsters.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Bruce" <davidbruce at yadtel.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 11:05 AM
Subject: Re: was RE: [AT] Towing now planters


>I don't know of a planter for sale but it should work wonderfully for 
>transplanting tomato plants.  Just remember that you will need several 
>people to man the thing so it would work best for a larger operation.
> The ones I remember were two row - four people feeding plants to the 
> planting section (they ride in seats on the setter) and, of course, 
> someone to drive.  A water tank was mounted on the tractor to supply the 
> transplanter - if you are planting acres it would be prefect.
> For smaller operatoins maybe a manual transplanter - I think I have the 
> remnants of one here somewhere - might be just the thing for my tomato 
> garden <g>
> David
> NW NC
>
> Lew Best wrote:
>> Hey guys
>>
>> With the big reduction in small tobacco farming (so it seems from these
>> discussions) anyone know of a small (one or 2 row?) tobacco planter that
>> could be bought cheap?  I'd like to try one for setting tomato plants.
>> I'm not even sure how one works but have had it suggested as possibly
>> working good.  Back channel email is bee_keeper at earthlink dot net.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>>
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