Used machines for Potplants

About second-hand machines for Potplants

Trees and plants not only make your home and garden green, but they also have a positive effect on your health. This is one of the reasons indoor plants have been hugely popular for years, and this trend appears to be here to stay. As a result, the demand for houseplants has risen sharply. For potted plant nurseries, Duijndam Machines has a wide range of used machines, such as various potting machines, different types of soil systems and both new and used plant conveyors.

Different types of potted plants require different machines 

There are various plants that can be grown in pots; houseplants, garden plants, perennials, shrubs, fruit trees, bedding plants and tub plants. Different potted plants have different ways of growing. For instance, plants can be grown in the greenhouse, on a concrete floor or, conversely, on cultivation tables; it is also possible outdoors on, for instance, a container field or open fields. Houseplants are often grown in heated greenhouses. Which potted plant machinery is needed depends on the working method and the type of potted plant. For example, it is much easier to automate if a nursery works with a uniform product, such as one or only a few types of potted plants and pot sizes, than when they have a wide variety of plants with varying pot sizes, as it sometimes happens in (smaller) nurseries. Especially for potted plant nurseries with a changing range, it can be more interesting to opt for broadly applicable machines combined with used machines for specific potted plants.

Propagation of potted plants: cuttings line and seeders 

Depending on the type of potted plant grown, the young plant starts from seed or a cutting, or is propagated in vitro. To quickly and efficiently propagate, graft and/or transplant cuttings, cutting lines or automatic cutting machines are the solution. The cutting line consists of a conveyor belt with work tables attached, where employees manually insert the cuttings into trays. In automatic cutting machines, cameras search for the position of the cuttings on a conveyor belt, after which a robotic arm picks them up and inserts them into the tray. 

Both the automatic cutting machine and the cutting line are placed in a production line in combination with a soil supply system, tray filler or soil blocker machine and watering unit.

If the young potted plant does not start as a cutting but as a seed, a tray seeder can be used. Tray seeders sow seeds with high accuracy in trays, in which these cuttings germinate. 

Potting machines

Various machines can be used for the potting process. For filling the pots themselves, of course, there are potting machines that fill the pots and drill planting holes. The minimum and maximum pot size a machine can handle varies from one potting machine to another. At the potting machine, there is usually space to place the young plants in the pots. More and more companies are choosing to install a planting robot on the potting machine, with planting taking place automatically. The grippers of the planting robot grab the young plants from the tray and place them in the pots. 

In addition, there are numerous machines for transporting the pots, such as; plant conveyors, buffer conveyors, expandable lift trucks and transfer robots. Duijndam Machines has a wide and changing range of potting machines from Javo, Martin Stolze, Mayer and Demtec, among others.

Soil systems

There are different types of potted plants, but they have one thing in common; they all need fertile soil, such as potting soil. To use this soil, it must be supplied to the beginning of the planting line. Many potted plant growers use compressed "big bales". Because the soil is more compact and therefore cheaper to transport. However, soil has to be processed back to its original open structure afterwards so that it is usable for potted plants. Big bale breakers are used for this, scraping and milling open the compressed soil.

In addition, soil bunkers can be used where the loose soil is deposited. This is great for farms that process large quantities of soil and have the potting machines in a fixed setup. Soil conveyors can then be used to transport the soil, from the soil bunker, to where it is needed. Besides fixed soil bunkers, mobile soil bunkers can also be used as an additional buffer of soil.

Other potted plant machinery used at potted plant nurseries include:

• Internal transport using plant conveyors, buffer belts or cultivation tables
• Pruning machines
• Crop protection machines
• Pot washing machines
• Labelling machines