What do you get when you want to grow a Begonia, Petunia and Calibrachoa in a single pot? That’s right, the petunia will grow so fast that it takes over the entire pot. Visser has come up with the solution for growers to meet the request of retailers for multi-color pots; The Visser Multi Planter. In this article, they share three reasons why the VMP is so beneficial in the greenhouse.
1. Trios in a pot
Consumers and retailers demand growers to deliver trios in a pot. But plants have different growth rates which can be hard to grow together in a single pot. Visser has listened to their customers and together with them they have developed the Visser Multi Planter. This new transplanter is able to plant up to four plants in a pot. This way, growers can select uniform pre-rooted plants and transplant them at the right time.
The transplanter is developed to plant directly onto the carousel of a Mayer TM 2400DR, utilizing the maximum capacity of the filler. With precise positioning of the grippers, the plants are always placed at the exact same location and at the same distance from each other, making it easy to spot a missing plant. With independent moving grippers and two input conveyors the maximum capacity of +/- 7.250 plant per hour can be achieved.
2. Powerful gripper
The new Visser gripper can grab every single plug, without exceptions. Because of the powerful gripper, there is no push-up unit needed anymore to push the plugs out of the tray. Even when plants are hard rooted the new Visser gripper can pick these up with ease, due to a new gripper technique with a powerful cylinder. Buying an expensive push up unit every time a new tray is developed by the tray supplier is now a thing of the past. As a result, you are saving a lot of money in the long run. Because a push-up unit is no longer needed, conversion times are handled quicker and made very easy to carry out. 
3. Peace of mind
Mayer and Visser are well known brands, which are famous for their easy-to-use and robust automation solutions. Besides the newest technologies implemented, smart low-tech solutions were also used, like changing pot sizes without the need for any tools. This speeds up the changing process to different trays and pot sizes. Because the VMP plants directly on the carousel of the Mayer, the machines run at full capacity every time, with a smoothness so that workers barely have to interfere.
For more information:
Visser Horti Systems
[email protected]
https://viscongroup.eu/plant-technology/