Transplant handling means

Claim 1

A process for the automated transplanting of a continuous transplant carrier into individual capsules containing transplants, comprising the steps of: forming a continuous transplant carrier tape provided with spaced capsules each of sufficient size to accommodate the germinated seed or plant and media to support growth and provided with aperture means for the exchange of moisture and gases to support such growth; said tape formed by providing a continuous length of flexible backing, corrugating a continuous length of plastic sheet to form corrugations including alternate valley portions, attaching said valley portions to the flexible backing to thereby define said spaced capsules, and perforating said capsules to provide for the exchange of moisture and gases; inserting seed and support media within the capsules; winding said tape into a roll provided with means for preventing unrolling of the roll; germinating and preculturing the seeds in said capsules for a period of time well beyond the time when radical and cotyledon emerge from the seeds to produce such transplants; mounting said roll of carrier tape with transplants contained in said individual capsules onto a transplanting mechanism so that the capsules are oriented substantially vertically; unrolling said roll and reorienting the capsules into a substantially horizontal attitude; grasping said capsules individually and severing individual capsules one from another and thereafter synchronously reorienting the thus severed capsules into a vertical position with the transplants upright; and thereafter planting the capsules together with included upright transplants in spaced relationship.