Transplanter

Abstract

A transplanter(10) for transplanting a plug seedling(G) grown in each cell(14a) of a plug seedling tray(14) to a certain size to a transplanted seedling tray(15) or a pot comprising a plug seedling carrying means(12) for carrying the plug seedling tray(14), a transplanted seedling carrying means(13) spaced at a certain distance from the plug seedling carrying means(12) for carrying the transplanted seedling tray(15) or the pot, a seedling transfer mechanism(30) disposed across the plug seedling carrying means(12) and the transplanted seedling carrying means(13) for transferring the plug seedling from the position above the plug seedling tray(14) to the position above the transplanted seedling tray(15), the seedling transfer mechanism(30) including an endless chain or belt(35) passing above the plug seedling carrying means(12) and the transplanted seedling carrying means(13) and circulating in a plane made at a certain angle with respect to a horizontal plane, the endless chain or belt(35) being provided at its outer peripheral surface with receptacles(36) for containing plug seedlings(G) to be spaced at a predetermined distance with respect to each other, a seedling picking-out mechanism(50) for picking out the plug seedling(G) from the cell(14a) of the plug seedling tray(14) and introducing it into one of the receptacles(36) of the seedling transfer mechanism(30), and a seedling planting mechanism(90) for picking out the plug seedling(G) from the receptacle(36) and planting it in the cell(15a) of the transplanted seedling tray(15) or the pot. The thus constituted transplanter becomes compact, and the transplanting operation can be carried out rapidly.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.