Getting your pots in a row

Tom Knuth, founder, STILT.PRO

Greenhouse Management: What kind of regular maintenance do potting machines need?

Tom Knuth: Keep them clean, get the growing material out periodically so it has a chance to dry and you don’t have fertilizer eating away at metal when it’s not in use. Also, check your grease points on your components. Make sure you’re looking at your safety controls, switches, things like that, to make sure they’re still operational. Make sure your operators are working in a safe environment.

GM: How often should growers clean their machines and do safety inspections?

TK: Generally, you should take a step back and look at what the risk is if your equipment is not functioning properly or what downtime would cost you if it’s not working. Based on how critical a piece of equipment is, you’ll want to inspect it more often. If it’s critical to your business, you should be proactive about your inspections and reports. The longer that a machine goes, as it starts to wear out, you’re going to start to see failure, so keep an eye on it. Things will start to fail more frequently when you start to get to the end of their lives.

GM: What signs indicate that a potting machine is starting to wear out?

TK: Leaks, noises, excessive power consumption. If it sounds like it’s working harder than it normally is. Look at your sprockets. Anything that’s moving through growing material is going to be subject to more wear. Look at the components that are constantly in the media and see if they’re starting to look thin or like they’ve worn out and they’re getting ready to fail. If things are hot, that’s another good indicator that they’re failing. Heat would be from friction, and if you have friction and things are getting hot, then something’s probably not right. Be proactive. It’s a lot easier to fix things on your time than it is on a machine’s time, especially today when parts can be hard to get a hold of. People often get stuck with some long lead times on components that showed signs of failing for a while, but they weren’t addressed until it was a critical failure, and now your machines are down and you have to wait.

GM: When a part needs fixing or replacing, can most growing teams fix it themselves, or will they have to call in a specialist or the manufacturer?

TK: I’ve seen it all different ways depending on the complexity of the equipment. So if you have some really complicated equipment, then you may have to bring in some external people, specialists or the manufacturer. If you have a relatively simple piece of equipment, then you may be able to do the repairs yourself. When you’re buying equipment, I’d say that the simplest piece of equipment that can do most of the job would serve you well. What I see with a lot of growers is complexity may look good and you may see crazy numbers with production rates, but as that goes on, the burden to maintain that equipment is so high that it becomes difficult. So, when you're buying equipment and when you're looking at equipment, complexity really has to be valuable to justify purchase. Otherwise, growers should be looking for the simplest solution they can find.

GM: What should growers look for when shopping for a new, upgraded machine?

TK: They should look for the simplest piece of equipment that can do the job, and it may not be able to do the job completely or 100%, but let’s say it gets you 80% of the way there. If you can get 80% of the way there with a piece of equipment that’s vastly simpler than another piece of equipment, that’s probably a good investment. And I would say if you don’t have the ability or the desire to fix something yourself, you should definitely keep it as simple as possible, because if you have to call somebody in to fix it, it’s going to get expensive and you’re not going to be happy. And with this industry, it’s not like a car dealership or a tractor dealership where there’s local support everywhere. So that can be difficult and frustrating and lead to some downtime.

Paul Whiting, president, Bouldin & Lawson

GM: What kind of maintenance do potting machines need?

Paul Whiting: Most modern-day potting machines run primarily on belts. Most older machines and some new ones operate with chains to index/move pots. These require cleaning and lubricating during off-season and minor adjustments during operation. The belt units should also be checked for correct tension and proper alignment to avoid fraying of the edges, which could result in the lacing being torn and potential failure.

GM: What signs indicate a potting machine needs to be replaced?

PW: Signs could be excessive corrosion of major framework or hoppers, multiple worn components or just that the unit can no longer meet production goals. Generally, potting machines are pretty durable, but the soils, containers and large plants can create wear that dictate replacement over expensive repair. It’s typically a financial decision. Do you put money into an old unit or put money into a newer, faster machine?

GM: What should growers look for when shopping for a new, upgraded machine?

PW: There's a wide range of potting machines on the market. Some are better suited for stepping up to larger pots, some better focused on bare root planting, and some are excellent general purpose units that do well at both. What are your production goals? Pots per hour, total number of pots in a production window, and is it all step-ups or a mix of step-ups and bare root? Depending on this mix, one type of machine may jump out as right for you or maybe production mix may dictate a small compromise to focus on the highest production product.

Bill Bozicevich, Western sales, Agrinomix/AdeptAg

GM: What kind of regular maintenance do potting machines need?

Bill Bozicevich: The basic thing is daily cleaning. That is the best thing that people can do. Just keep a good cleaning schedule and allow time for workers to make sure things are clean. You have soil, dust and peat moss everywhere, right? Just keep that out of everything by regularly cleaning by brushing and using an air gun to blow that off and keep it clean.

GM: What signs indicate that a potting machine needs to be replaced?

BB: Stay as connected as you can to your crew that’s doing the potting. A lot of times, they’re not telling you when things are wrong, and you go out and you say, “Why are things moving so slow?” Then you finally come to realize a machine’s not drilling holes in the center or pots aren’t being filled all the way or there’s always too much soil or too little soil or just something isn’t going smoothly. That’s just one of those red flags where you say, “Hey, is it something that we can adjust and fix the problem?” Oftentimes, it’s just adjustments, but those are things that need to be analyzed. If you can’t fix it with adjustments, then maybe it’s time to replace it. Then there are smaller and medium growers, or new growers, that might not have any mechanization at all. I still know people in today’s world that are doing things by hand and filling pots by hand. If that’s you, then you should certainly be looking at mechanization. No matter what size you are, if somebody’s doing it by hand, you should be looking at mechanization.

GM: What should growers look for when shopping for a new, upgraded machine?

BB: First thing is to figure out which type of pot filling machine to buy. The carousel style is not the only way to fill pots. For me, there are five different types or categories, all with strengths and weaknesses: carousel style, bare root style, template filler, flat filler and semi-auto filler. You need to define which containers you want to fill and then go and look at the specs of the machines. Find out what machines actually will fill those sizes, if you need to do from 1 to 5 gallons or if it’s 4-inch pots or whatever that might be. There’s also speed. You should be able to find out how many pots per hour a machine can do and if that fits your system or not. Once you’ve identified what machines could actually work, then start looking at the representation, the service, the availability of parts, the price. So I would say all those things — availability, price, service, parts — those would be the most important things to start looking at to identify what machines could be good for you.