Large competition at the flowers, vegetables and decorative plants market forces producers to raise quality of offered equipment. Increase of the turnover and decrease of costs became possible thanks mainly to the introduction of multi-cell trays. Currently the main influence on quality and pace of production has the operation process in these trays:

• Sowing preparation
• Hygiene maintenance
• Preparation of the substrate of the proper ingredients
• Feeding and filling of the trays
• Precise point or nest sowing of seeds into a particular cells of the tray.
• Covering sown seeds with the substances maintaining moisture in the soil
• Precise watering of the trays

and

• Transport and methods of storage of the trays in a greenhouse
• Maintaining proper conditions in a period of seedling growth – germinating, watering, fertilizing
• Transport connected with the sales of a ready-made seedlings

Technology, which we offer to you is based on the possibility of mechanization of the particular stages of seedling production.

The result of our experiences is (honoured with the gold medal at POLAGRA 99 Trade Fair) manually powered semi-automatic line for seed sowing VP 605/2. It has all the features of a professional line for seed sowing.

Currently we can offer fully automated line ANT 4. High efficiency of this machine opens new possibilities. The line meets most of the requirements given to our equipment for seedling production. It is designed for filling the trays with the substrate, precise seed sowing, covering the seeds with pearlite and watering sown trays remembering about optimal hygienic conditions and high speed of the production process . The scope of actions of the automatic line can change depending on the version.

Basic elements of the line are:

Main conveyor equipped with the transportation belt of the high adherence. Its controlled driving gear permits smooth start and coordination of the turns if the particular machines. Conveyor table has width and height adjustment thanks to which fitting the line to every multi-cell tray is possible.

Automatic filling machine enables continuous filling of the trays with the substrate. Speed adjustment helps to adjust machine speed to speed of movement of the main conveyor and the tray volume.

Pearlite distributor is fixed at the end of the main conveyor. The job of this machine is covering sown seeds with a layer of pearlite or vermiculite. Distributor is synchronised with the main conveyor and equipped with speed adjustment. It can work both in a carpet mode i.e. it can cover the whole tray or after fixing under the tank a proper diaphragm it can cover particular rows of cells. In certain cultivations a better solution can be covering sown seeds with sand.

Sand distributor is a universal machine which allows to distribute sand, and pearlite or vermiculite as well.

Receiving conveyor fixed as an addition to the main conveyor moves sown trays through the watering tunnel and helps trays to be collected.

Watering tunnel thanks to fixed sprinkling nozzles allows fast and precise watering of sown trays. Watering has been synchronised with the conveyor movement.

Pneumatic drum seed drill fixed on the line has a disadvantage of being more efficient than other seed drills. It sows seeds very precisely into earlier prepared hollows made by a holing roller Hemispherical hollow causes seeds to be placed in the middle of a cell. Seed drills can be equipped with seed hopper vibrator, system of automatic cleaning, closed seed hopper (for very light seeds) and a number of adjustments. Each is adjusted for a particular tray and tested. Seeders are build for sowing spherical or enveloped seeds.

Toroidal mechanical seed drill constructed for nest seeding (seeding into the hollows) or spread seeding (seeding on the whole surface of the tray’s cell) of a particular number of seeds.

Air pump produces sub-atmospheric pressure and excess pressure necessary for a proper seed drill operation. Its operation is unproblematic however demands certain practice. It is equipped with variable adjustment, air filter and valves enabling adjustment of air pressure in particular hoses.

Additional equipment:

Substrate feeder is a machine supporting feeding a filling machine hopper which is located high on the seeding line. It possesses low placed container of a volume of 250 litres, mechanism of which transports substrate to the filling machine. Feeder can be equipped with mixing device allowing for unrestrained composition of a substrate mix.

Automatic watering lines they are machines providing optimal watering and fertigation of seedlings. Line is equipped with its own power supply and can be used both in greenhouse objects and outdoors.

Composition of other, following elements of production process depends only on customer’s needs..