Transplanting apparatus for depositing plants directly from a supply tape into an inclined furrow

Claim 1

Transplanting apparatus comprising a mobile frame adapted to traverse a strip of soil to be planted, furrow-forming roller means having a sloping wall and a vertical wall carried by said frame for forming a furrow having a sloping side and a vertical side, a supply tape on said frame having a series of resilient blocks thereon of lesser width than said furrow-forming means with a slit between adjacent blocks, the plants to be transplanted being held in said slits, means for directing said supply tape downwardly toward said furrow at a location rearwardly of said furrow-forming roller means with the nearer edges of said blocks being laterally offset in the direction of said sloping wall with respect to the vertical plane of said vertical wall and with said slits oriented transversely to said vertical wall, a member suspended from said frame for changing the direction of tape movement over the sloping side of the furrow formed by said furrow-forming roller means for successively depositing plants transversely onto the sloping side of the furrow as the apparatus moves along said strip, and means carried by said frame spaced rearwardly from said direction-changing member for backfilling said furrow only from its vertical side, whereby the plants are so positioned so that the roots are covered but not the tops.