PlantTape, a leader in agricultural technology, is proud to announce the commercial launch of its latest innovation: an Automated Tomato Transplanter. This cutting-edge solution is poised to transform the way tomatoes are transplanted, offering increased efficiency and precision for growers worldwide.

Designed with extensive input from tomato growers and industry experts, the Automated Tomato Transplanter addresses the specific needs and challenges faced by modern agriculturalists. This innovative module can plant up to 12″ tall transplants, ensuring rapid and uniform planting across fields. With the capability to bury plants 8″ deep and inject over 400 gallons of water per acre, this technology optimizes growing conditions for maximum crop health and productivity.

“Our team is thrilled to introduce the Automated Tomato Transplanter, the culmination of years of research, development, and collaboration with the tomato industry,” said Danielle Michaels, Director of North America Sales at PlantTape. “We recognized the need for a solution that expedites the planting process while saving planting labor, and we’re proud to deliver a product that achieves both.”

Currently, the Automated Tomato Transplanter is available for commercial planting trials for the 2025 tomato season. Growers interested in learning more about this groundbreaking technology are encouraged to reach out to Jesus Vasquez at PlantTape for additional information.

PlantTape, a leading pioneer in automated transplanting solutions, is proud to announce the appointment of Jesus Vasquez as the new Western USA Regional Sales Manager. With nearly three decades of extensive experience in the agriculture industry, Jesus brings a profound understanding of sustainable farming practices, operational efficiency, and leadership to his new role.  This addition to the team will further enhance PlantTape’s commitment to continual innovation, customer service and continued growth across key agricultural regions.

As Western USA Regional Sales Manager, Vazquez will lead the Western Sales team, focusing on optimizing farm operations through innovative practices, precision farming techniques, and data-driven decision-making. His primary responsibilities will include enhancing customer engagement, expanding market presence, and driving PlantTape’s mission to deliver sustainable, scalable solutions that meet the evolving needs of growers.

Throughout his career, Vasquez has been a driving force in enhancing productivity and maximizing efficiency, and cultivating strong relationships within his teams and the wider agricultural community.  His vision aligns seamlessly with PlantTape’s core values, making him an ideal fit for this new role. 

“I am thrilled to be joining PlantTape, a company that has not only revolutionized transplanting technology, but also demonstrates an unwavering commitment to sustainability, innovation and fostering a positive work culture. I look forward to contributing to the continued growth of the company and collaborating with the talented team dedicated to making a lasting impact on the agriculture industry,” said Vasquez.

Jesus’s leadership and vision will be instrumental in expanding PlantTape’s footprint across the Western region, reinforcing the company’s mission to deliver cutting-edge agricultural solutions that help growers increase productivity, reduce labor costs, and promote sustainable farming practices.

PlantTape’s automated transplanting system has gained widespread recognition for its ability to revolutionize the way crops are planted while drastically decreasing a reliance on labor, offering an efficient and sustainable alternative to traditional methods. PlantTape continues to set new benchmarks in the industry, providing farmers with the tools they need to meet the challenges of modern agriculture.

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PlantTape’s Rate-Limiting Factor for Transplanting

The limiting factor for the top transplanting speed is not the transplanter itself, but rather the crew’s ability to keep up with the speed of the machine to clip the tape together, tray-to-tray. If the tape is flying out of the trays faster than the crew can clip it, the transplanter out paces the two people and the tape ends. The rate at which the tape leaves the trays depends on two factors: plant-to-plant spacing, and ground speed. If plant-to-plant spacing is wider—say for hemp or tomatoes—the crew can keep pace with a higher ground speed. With a crop such as onions or lettuce, however, a tight plant-to-plant spacing means that the tape will be leaving the trays at more velocity, given equal ground speed.

Planter Modules Calibrated to Transplanter Ground Speed

PlantTape’s transplanter stands apart from the competition in its ability to calibrate the planting rates of its modules to the machine’s ground speed. If the tractor driver speeds up or slows down, plant spacing stays consistent as the modules adjust their rate to compensate. In contrast, other transplanters’ ground drive systems can’t automatically calibrate their planting rate to ground speed, so they rely on specific ground speeds to achieve a target plant spacing. Automatic planting rate calibration: yet another advantage of the PlantTape system.

So How Fast Can the PlantTape Transplanter Go?

Danielle Michaels recalls her days in the field (currently, Danielle serves as PlantTape’s North American Sales Director with a particular tractor driver who “suddenly started going 10mph” during a day of vegetable transplanting. “The transplanter planted just fine,” she remembers, “but the ride got a bit bumpy for the crew.” A 10 mph transplanter is ultrafast by industry standards, but the team at PlantTape suspected the machine could plant with precision at much higher speeds. To find the transplanter’s top planting speed, a PlantTape crew, , hitched one of our transplanters to a John Deere 6150 tractor and achieved sustained speeds of 20 mph. The planting modules still delivered each seedling into the soil with the same precision as at lower speeds. “We would never recommend going this fast for production acres,” Michaels admits, “but this is just for fun, to see how fast it would go.” Until we receive notice of our record being overturned, PlantTape is laying claim to the world’s fastest transplanter. Watch the PlantTape “Fastest Transplanter” Youtube video of the demo.

About PlantTape

PlantTape represents an entire automated transplanting system, of which our fast transplanter is one component.

• Sowing: it all begins with our automated sowing system, which seeds our tape.
• Nursery: PlantTape empowers high-yield nursery operations by more than doubling greenhouse throughput.
• Transplanting: our 3-point planter is the fastest, most efficient transplanter on the planet.

The entire process, from sowing through transplanting, is enabled by our trademark plant tape: a tape that holds seeds, and later seedlings, through the entire cycle. Growers of vegetables, tomatoes, and hemp have revolutionized their operations with PlantTape. Our customers have reduced labor costs by as much as 80%, increased crop yield, and introduced other efficiencies to their operations.

PlantTape is well-known for the efficiencies we bring to nurseries and to transplanting in the field. The environmental benefits of our automated transplanting system is often highlighted less, but is equally important as farmers are challenged daily to become more sustainable while feeding the world.

Plant Tape

Our trademark plant tape material is what enables our entire system, from sowing through transplanting. Because the tape can go directly into the soil, the plant is never touched during planting. Once in the ground, the tape is still visible if a plant is uprooted from the ground. However, after the field is harvested and the remaining plant material is disked back into the soil, the tape will disintegrate over time among the other organic matter.

Lower Peat Usage

Peat is a primary component of crop transplanting globally. With many world governments considering limits on peat mining, peat costs can be expected to increase in the coming years creating another increasing cost for growers while food prices remain the same.

The UK, for example, plans to ban sales of peat compost to the general public by 2024. Meanwhile, the National Trusts’ joint statement on peat calls for “a complete ban on the use and sale of horticultural peat.”

By using PlantTape, growers can cut peat costs significantly, while staying on the good side of environmental issues—and of governments with an eye on the peat industry.

The PlantTape system reduces peat usage by up to 98% compared to other transplanting systems. Where a traditional peat block is 120 cubic centimeters, PlantTape uses only 3 cc’s per seedling.

PlantTape material prior to the seeds being sown.

Long-Lifespan Nursery Trays

Traditional celled nursery trays are single use, generating significant plastic waste per each acre of crop planted.

In contrast, PlantTape’s reusable nursery trays last multiple seasons. With their sturdy construction and modular design, they serve growers year after year, diverting tons of plastic waste from the landfill.

Lower Field Inputs

Some growers find that adopting the PlantTape automated transplanting system results in lower field inputs. Because plants spend less time in the field and more time in a controlled environment, necessary inputs are applied precisely, as needed.  Some growers in California’s Salinas Valley report a 10-15% decrease in watering and fertilization requirements on the lifetime of the crop with PlantTape as compared to traditional transplanting systems.

Nursery Efficiencies

A nursery utilizing the PlantTape system is more efficient per square foot of floor space. A PlantTape nursery tray holds 840 seedlings, compared to 338 seedlings for a standard nursery tray. The PlantTape tray is only slightly larger than the conventional tray, so PlantTape more than doubles greenhouse holding capacity.

Because PlantTape can double greenhouse productivity, nurseries achieve an equivalent throughput with half the greenhouse land-use footprint. Smaller greenhouses require less heating, lighting, and other inputs.

A nursery with the goal of doubling production would traditionally need to double floorspace, which would mean increasing electricity usage, water usage, and other inputs. With PlantTape, in contrast, it can achieve its goal with its current floorspace and inputs.

In May 2021, PlantTape conducted a tomato transplanting trial in Northwest Ohio. The trial aimed to demonstrate viability of PlantTape’s automated transplanting system for non-irrigated tomato agriculture. Recently, a crew harvested the PlantTape tomatoes and compared yield and fruit quality to conventionally planted tomatoes of the same variety grown adjacent to the PlantTape trial.

The Tomato Planting Trial

In May, as reported in our previous blog post, PlantTape injected subsurface water to the root zone of each tomato seedling during transplanting. The injected water helped the transplanted tomatoes establish themselves during 5+ days of dry, hot weather before the next rains arrived.

Subsequent inspections revealed that the PlantTape tomatoes were thriving on par with their conventionally planted neighbors, with similar height, color, and other health markers.

Harvesting the PlantTape Tomatoes

Tomato transplants ready to be planted

The PlantTape tomato harvest compared favorably with tomatoes which were planted with conventional transplanting methods. Both crops—PlantTape tomatoes and nearby conventionally planted tomatoes of the same variety—measured similarly in terms of the following metrics:

• Stand
• Yield (tons per acre)
• Color
• Uniformity

The harvest further validates the viability of the PlantTape automated transplanting system for no-irrigation tomato growing operations.

Seeking Partners for 2022 Tomato Trials

PlantTape will conduct further tomato trials in the 2022 growing season, and welcomes partnership opportunities to trial our system’s capabilities in different regions of the United States.

Next year’s trials will test longevity of PlantTape seedlings in the greenhouse, among other critical factors.

PlantTape is giving growers the opportunity to demo the equipment before having to make a final decision on the product.

If you are a tomato grower in the US and wish to participate in a tomato transplanting trial, please contact Danielle Michaels at daniellemichaels@planttape.com to discuss logistics.

About PlantTape: PlantTape is an agricultural technology company based in Salinas, California. Our automated transplanting system making the nursery and transplanting process more efficient for vegetable growers, tomato growers, and hemp growers around the world.

PlantTape has gained a lot of attention for revolutionizing the transplanting process (80% reduction in transplanting labor requirements, better stands, higher crop yield), but the benefits of our automated transplanting system show up in the nursery, as well.

PlantTape’s greenhouse benefits include:

• Greenhouses can double throughput
• Growers have flexibility on when to transplant
• Growers can opt to bring nursery operations in-house

We can sum all these benefits in two words: efficiency and flexibility. Indeed, efficiency and flexibility have always been the heart of what the PlantTape automated transplanting system offers to growers and nursery operators.

Enhanced Greenhouse Throughput

A nursery using the PlantTape system can double or even triple its seedling throughout compared to a traditional greenhouse using celled nursery trays.“The PlantTape system allowed me to double nursery production, due to increased plant density and shorter growing cycles.” –Jason Kelly, S.A.L.S Transplants, LLC

A nursery using the PlantTape system can double or even triple its seedling throughout compared to a traditional

greenhouse using celled nursery trays.

PlantTape Doubles Nursery Plant Density

PlantTape enables a greenhouse to grow a million seedlings in 5,000 square feet of floorspace. That equates to 200,000 seedlings per thousand square feet of floorspace.

Compared to traditional nurseries that grow 116,272 plants per thousand square feet, PlantTape offers nearly double the plant density. While a PlantTape nursery tray is only slightly bigger than a standard 338 celled tray, it has a much higher holding capacity.

PlantTape Allows Shorter Growing Cycles

With the PlantTape system, a grower can opt to plant seedlings at any point after germination.

Other transplanting methods require workers to manually pull transplants from their celled trays. The plants must be sufficiently developed not to separate from the root system as they are manually pulled out of the tray, meaning they must remain in the greenhouse for a definite maturation period.

With PlantTape, in contrast, the seedlings don’t need to be pulled. Instead, each transplant is placed—still in its original soil plug—into the ground by the PlantTape planting modules. Accordingly, PlantTape seedlings can be transplanted immediately after germination if desired.

PlantTape’s reduced growing cycle allows nurseries to cycle through more seedling sets.

Combine shorter growing cycles with increased seedling density, and you’ve got a recipe for a high-yield nursery.

PlantTape has developed some enhancements to our standard tape material.

Logistical Flexibility on When to Plant

As we discussed in our article on PlantTape enabling a flexible transplanting schedule, PlantTape’s open-ended transplanting timing allows growers to coordinate planting around weather events, labor issues, or other constraints.

Growers Choose Whether to Use a Commercial Nursery

Another way PlantTape gives growers flexibility is by giving them the option to do in-house nursery operations.

For example, some growers find themselves geographically remote from any commercial nursery. With PlantTape, they can set up their own (highly efficient) greenhouse. PlantTape can sow the grower’s seed in one of our and ship it straight to their operation.

So long as the grower has a simple greenhouse set up with T rails and a watering/fertilizing boom, they are equipped to handle the nursery stage of the PlantTape automated transplanting system.

Come transplanting time, the grower simply loads their nursery trays of PlantTape seedlings from the nursery into their PlantTape 3-point planter, then transplants away.

One of the many benefits of the PlantTape automated transplanting system is its versatility in handling a variety of commodity types. For growers that grow multiple commodities, this versatility proves invaluable. PlantTape gives growers the ability to have a single transplanter that can plant almost every commodity in their farming program

Switching between crops with PlantTape

PlantTape’s simultaneous planting of six different commodities was purely a showcase of how crop-agnostic our system is. While a grower will almost certainly not need to plant diverse crops simultaneously, many growers will need to plant different crops consecutively. PlantTape allows them to do so with unprecedented ease.

Changing plant-to-plant (or in-row) spacing.

PlantTape offers growers a way to change the pant to plant spacing with ease via a simple touch screen computer located on the side of the planter. Spacing can even be changed while the planter is running if the operator chooses.

Planting consecutive commodities with different bed configurations

If two commodities have different bed configurations—for example, onions and broccoli—then a grower will need to make simple some mechanical adjustments to our automated transplanter.

Line-to-line spacing can be altered in the field with standard hand tools in a matter of minutes. Planting lines can be added or removed by raising or lowering planting modules via a valve on the planting module cylinder.

If a crew is planting 6 lines of onions on a 72” bed and needs to switch to 2 lines of broccoli on a 36” bed, they would load the broccoli seedlings into the transplanter, raise up the two middle planting modules to take them out of action, and make any desired line-to-line adjustments. After a short time, they’re back in business, planting two 36” rows of broccoli at a 72” wheelbase.

Unprecedented transplanting flexibility

Compared to other transplanters, which are often manufactured with fixed bed configurations and designed for a specific commodity, the PlantTape automated transplanting system brings unprecedented versatility to growers of vegetables, tomatoes, and hemp.

Commodity-to-commodity versatility is only one of the many ways PlantTape empowers growers. As we showcased last month, the PlantTape system also offers flexibility in when to plant seedlings.

The world’s fastest transplanter

Not only is the PlantTape transplanter versatile, it’s also blazing fast. Recently, we decided to see how fast. We took it to 20mph and it still planted flawlessly. Read about the demo and why we feel confident in our claim of having the world’s fastest transplanter.

About PlantTape

The PlantTape seedling planter is the fastest, most adaptable, and most user-friendly transplanter on the market. It’s only one component of the PlantTape automated transplanting system, which covers sowing, nursery operations, and transplanting. 

To learn more about PlantTape, or to request a field demo, contact sales@planttape.com or call +1 (888) 272-6828

From the beginning, PlantTape has prioritized customer service. When our growers face challenges, we make it a priority to help them.

“I’ve been impressed with knowledge brought to the table by the PlantTape team, they always know what to do over the phone. Really appreciate the customer support. Anytime we have a question there is always an immediate response.” Bryan Knepper, operations manager, Rothert Farms, Okeechobee, Florida

When growers contact us for support, their issue typically falls into one of two categories: agronomy-related, or equipment-related.

Agronomic customer support

The PlantTape system is designed to integrate into existing growing operations with a minimum of disruption. PlantTape does, however, introduce specific tolerances, and growers sometimes have questions.

For example, an onion grower might wonder about the timing of mowing onions with the PlantTape system, or a greenhouse operator might have a question about recommended railing systems. Growers might want to ask about recommended fertilizer programs, or any number of other agricultural queries.

PlantTape’s agronomy team is available to respond to all agronomy-related questions, and to help growers thrive with the PlantTape system. In addition to helping customers navigate specific challenges, we also offer advice, tips, and tricks for maximizing agricultural output with the system.

Equipment-related customer support

PlantTape’s mechanical design makes it one of the most user-friendly automated transplanters on the market. To help our customers minimize disruption and frustration, PlantTape’s customer service representatives and engineers are available 24/7 to respond to any issues that arise.

Whether a grower needs advice on rebuilding their planting modules at the end of the season or is having a bit of trouble changing line-to-line spacing, the PlantTape team is a video call away to keep our customers operational.

Setting the standard for agricultural customer service

PlantTape believes that concierge customer service is the only way to do business. When our growers thrive, we thrive. That’s why we are passionate about our growers’ success and immediately respond to any questions or concerns they may have.

To learn more about PlantTape or to request a demo of our automated transplanting system, visit our contact page, or call (888) 272-6828

About PlantTape

 PlantTape is an agtech company based in Salinas, CA with operations around the globe. Whether you’re looking for the most user-friendly vegetable planter, or need a better hemp transplanting solution, the PlantTape automated transplanting system can help you increase crop yield, improve greenhouse throughput, and reduce transplanting labor costs by as much as 80%.

PlantTape conducts a successful tomato planting trial in Ohio

On May 20, 2021, PlantTape conducted a tomato transplanting trial in Northwest Ohio. Planting in the heat, and with no irrigation, PlantTape successfully planted 3 acres of tomato seedlings, using sub-surface water injection to the plant roots.

Trays of tomato seedlings rady for transplanting

Tomato seedlings just planted, Northwestern Ohio

Quality Tomato Transplants

Jason Kelly of S.A.L.’s Vegetable Transplants was PlantTape’s nursery partner for the trial (S.A.L.’s was also the nursery partner for our lettuce transplanting case study involving Rothert Farm). He grew a uniform, hardened-off tomato plant perfect for Ohio’s hot conditions and also for the PlantTape automated transplanting system, which favors a shorter, stockier tomato seedling.

Planting tomatoes with underground water injection

For the transplanting trial, a hydraulic pump injected water below-ground from two tractor-mounted tanks. A hose attached to a nipple on the hollow planting shoe allowed for water to be delivered directly to each seedling’s roots. Using 400 gallons to the acre, the water was injected directly to each plant’s root zone, creating a good seal and minimizing evaporation. The transplants were able to establish quickly and start growing. In the five days immediately after the planting, temperatures remained high and the plants received no additional water. No wilting was observed, and all plants remained vibrant. On the sixth day, it rained.

S.A.L’s Vegetable Transplants cultivated tomato seedlings ideal for the PlantTape automated transplanting system

The PlantTape system proven for no-irrigation tomato transplanting

Considering that much of the American Midwest does not utilize irrigation in tomato agriculture, PlantTape needed to demonstrate planting viability for no-irrigation tomato growing operations. Our May tomato trial did just that, showing that tomato seedlings remain hardy for several days post-planting due to our delivery of water to the seedling root zone.

Previous PlantTape tomato trials in California had already proven the viability of the PlantTape system for tomato agriculture with irrigation; now, its viability for planting tomatoes in the absence of irrigation has been demonstrated.

Read next: PlantTape follows up with the Ohio tomato trial, measuring crop yield and other key factors.

About PlantTape

PlantTape represents an entire automated transplanting system.

• Sowing: it all begins with our automated sowing system, which seeds our tape.
• Nursery: PlantTape empowers high-yield nursery operations by more than doubling greenhouse throughput.
• Transplanting: our 3-point planter is the fastest, most efficient transplanter on the planet.

The entire process, from sowing through greenhouse operations through transplanting, is enabled by our trademark plant tape: a tape that holds seeds, and later seedlings, through the entire cycle.

Growers of vegetables, tomatoes, and hemp have revolutionized their operations with PlantTape’s precision agriculture solutions. Our customers have reduced labor costs by as much as 80%, increased crop yield, and introduced other efficiencies to their operations.

One of the many benefits of the PlantTape automated transplanting system is the logistical flexibility it gives growers and greenhouse operators. Specifically, PlantTape seedlings can be planted at any time after the sowing process.

With conventional transplanting, plants and roots must be sufficiently developed to withstand being manually pulled from celled nursery trays. A transplant that is pulled too early can be damaged or destroyed.

Because PlantTape places transplants into the ground with minimal human touch and without disturbing the roots, seedlings can be planted at any time after sowing. Whether the seedling is at the cotyledon stage or with 5 true leaves, the PlantTape planting modules cut the tape between plants and place each into the soil, while the tape material protects and encapsulates the delicate roots. 

To use another example, a celery grower has 45-day old seedlings in the greenhouse when he learns that part of his crew is moving on in a week, leaving him short-staffed. (Read how PlantTape reduces transplanting labor requirements by 80%.)

Given the scarcity of skilled agricultural labor, the grower can’t hire more employees in time, and his celery is too young to plant immediately with conventional methods.

Again, PlantTape to the rescue. The grower decides to plant before the workers depart, and PlantTape handles the young celery seedlings just fine.

A demonstration with romaine seedlings of different ages

To demonstrate PlantTape’s ability to transplant seedlings at almost any maturation stage, we recently loaded our transplanter with six lines of romaine, each line being a different aged plant, and planted it near Salinas, CA.

On the far left, a line of romaine sown one week prior, with cotyledons barely sprouting. On the far right, a line of romaine at 6 weeks with 4-5 true leaves and three-inch tall plants. In between were lines of romaine at 2, 3, 4, and 5 weeks.

As seen in the YouTube video, the PlantTape planting modules had no issue precisely placing each seedling into the soil, regardless of developmental stage.

When we checked in on the 6 lines two weeks (?) after planting, all seedlings were thriving. 

To learn more about PlantTape, or to request a field demo, contact sales@planttape.com or call +1 (888) 272-6828