Commercial Growers Do Things a Bit Different to Gardeners. In This Video They Are Using a Semi-Automatic Machine To Plant Four Rows Of Lettuce Per Bed.
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The system is very similar to the one I used where we marked to the soil with a block marker and dropped module raised planets into each marked hole by hand. This method utilises a Semi Automatic Lettuce Planting system.
On a larger scale the system seen in the video is used to plant multiple beds at once. Examples of areas using this form of mechanisation include the Salinas Valley in California. Here they grow thousands of acres of lettuce in what can only be described as an outdoor factory. Irrigation is achieved by raising the soil water table. Crops are harvested, packed and vacuum chilled in situ before being air freighted to international markets. Lettuce produced here could be harvested and flown to London commission markets for sale the following day and being sold in shops and supermarkets later that day. As an English lettuce grower, growing half a million lettuce a year, my biggest competitor was in California and grew more than half a million lettuce a day …. it made my efforts seem quite insignificant!
Hortech, the company that manufactures this planter, produce qa wide range of horticultural machinery. They are based in Italy but export worldwide.
