In Today’s Video, Jackson takes the paperpot transplanter from Nitten (actually pronounced knee-TEN) for a spin and gives a very straight-forward review.
This video addresses the question of “is the paperpot transplanter worth it” from someone who has spent a lot of time being skeptical of this tool.
Learn more about (or find) the Nitten Paperpot Transplanter at https://www.smallfarmworks.com
or
https://www.nittenpaperpot.jp
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29 Comments
Great ad/review of a great future tool to save for.
I'm not sold. It's not saving all that much time over a regular walk behind planters that was invented 100+ years ago. I don't see a market for this planter. It's a waste for a small operation. Not good for large farmers either as they will have regular planters.
As a long-time small scale market farmer(18 years) I bought into the hype of paper pots about 5 years ago and purchased all the equipment. After using it for 3 years I am of the opinion that it is the most frustrating piece of equipment I've ever used. I got rid of that piece of junk. I found that it basically needs perfect soil conditions, no clumps, rocks, sticks, and definitely not heavy/wet soil. It also needs several feet of headland at each end of the row. It's an awkward tool to haul around and store. The paper chains make a mess of the field. Even after a successful transplant with it, the soil around the paper-chain./transplants often sloughs off and leaves the paper exposed(which, around here for me, birds seem to like and they often pull it up) and the transplants do not seem to get off to a good start. The chains are too expensive for 1 time use, too messy, the trays are non-standard size(not 10×20) and are wicked expensive too(although they are quality and will last). With all that said I clearly would not recommend this tool but, when it works as expected, it's great. If I was to do it again(which I won't), I would save the transplanter tool cost and try the Neversink Hoe for transplanting. I have gone back to hand transplanting and don't regret it AT ALL. Worst tool investment ever.
I love ALL No-Till Growers videos!
Great review! I got my paperpot transplanter from Modern Grower last year and I love it. Absolute game changer for a one person farm. Took some time to get good at using it, but it was well worth it. I can grow so much more in a lot less time now.
The double 't' indicates tension on that sound. So it would be pronounced a little more like "neat" as in "neat and tidy." So, "neat-TEN." Best as I can tell from their website, it's a contraction of 「日本甜菜」, "nihon tensai" or "Japan Sugarbeets." Mind you I don't think they actually care if you pronounce it right, but there you go.
I was just thinking about these the other day are ya’ll reading my friggin mind? 😂
I think I'd have to try someone else's first. At barely 5' and 100 lbs, I'm not sure how easy it would be for me to maneuver. They do interest me though.
Interadesting
Buying the paperpot has been the biggest waste of money for me. It only works in a perfectly tilled, perfectly clean bed. The chains NEVER get covered, and they dry out way too fast. I always have to go back over the rows and cover the chains by hand. The transplantor doesn't work well at all in a high tunnel, due to its size. The chains DO NOT break down at all. We are constantly picking up pieces of paper. The only good part of the kit are the trays, because the trays can hold 105 soil blocks.
Because of our setup, this is not something that we would find ourselves using. However something learned and now new ideas in our heads. Great review and hopeful that there will be some follow up videos and Jackson and the paperpot planter. Great to see a Sunday video again too!
I'm a small scale no-till CSA farmer in Oregon. I've been using the paper pot transplanter for 2 season now. Over those 2 years we have moved from soil blocks to paper pot more and more as we use it. The drawbacks are chains not breaking down, storage and transporting it, and maybe if your soil is poor quality it wont plant cells consistently. Other than that, it has saved us tons of time, and I'm not bent over planting blocks.
This has absolutely nothing to do with the video, but my name is Jesse and my brother's name is Jackson. So that was a little weird.
ThankQ
I got the Neversink paperpot transplanter last season. Game changer for me. I plant out 3 beds of lettuce per week. At 400 lettuce plants per bed it took me, on average, 1.5 hours per bed, to transplant by hand. I can do it in about 20 minutes with the paperpot system. I'm saving 3+ hours per week over my 26 week season. That time savings alone nearly paid for the system in the first season. And that extra time per week allowed me to make everything else go more smoothly. More things got weeded/cultivated at their optimal times, which resulted in better yields. There was time to experiment on some new crops to get the timing and systems dialed so they can fully enter the mix next season. One of which, green onions, will be using the paperpots next season. Cilantro will use it as well for the first few plantings to get an earlier start. Direct sowing cilantro for the remainder of the season.
I think I may have gotten a slight boost in yield on the lettuce mix as well. The paperchains need to be transplanted out about a week, or more, sooner than standard cell systems. The plants are smaller, in those tiny 264 cell trays. You don't want them to get as big as standard cell trays or the leaves become too intertwined and foul up the chain as it's trying to pull out for transplant. But getting them into real soil a week earlier gives more growth than an extra week in a peat moss based seeding mix.
There's a learning curve. You have to get your soil tilth to about perfect. You have to go back and unbury the sections where it planted a bit too deep, or push some dirt around the sections that went too shallow. It happens. The paper residue in the field after the crop is finished can be an issue. Cultivation techniques had to change as you can't run a tool across the beds to get in between plants after running down the in-row lengths of the beds, else you pull the chains, and plants, out. Running a wire weeder close in along the paper worked well for me.
Price?
Yes, videos like this are very helpful!
We're on year 3 of our Paperpot system (same as pictured here), and we've discovered that the first season with our system is the learning year. By the second year, we've managed to completely eliminate a staff member used for transplanting. We transplant on average 10×264 pots per week, which is the equivalent of about 21, 128 trays per week. For those of us on small scale farms, we realize how much time it takes to transplant 21, 128 trays. Long story short, lots of what Jackson says here is true: we become reliable on external resources for our farms. But, if you're seeking efficiency and profitability, the system pays for itself within a few months. You do have to get used to seeing paper chains everywhere on your farm.
Good arguments. The major con for me is the lock-in to a particular system and dependency on a supply chain. But at a farm scale, I definitely see how it could be worth it. Especially as a shared tool between farms, lowering the investment cost.
Your cool so long as you don't become dependent on government hand outs. Sharing the planter is wise idea.
Kinda lost me when you said scissor doors were awesome. Worst design I’ve used. The end walls become a giant sail and it puts way too much pressure on the center where you wrap and attached the plastic to the swing arm. We are changing all of ours over to wood framed end walls with 4’ of extra space at either end of the bed row.
It looks like a rail dragster lol
can't find out if the paper is biodegradable; does anyone know?
Could you use the paper pot transplanter for something like (small scale) grain planting? Like enough grain for a family (oats, wheat, rye, maybe dry land rice)?
Just saw the intro while scrolling through my feed and had to say that machine looks awesome! 👍
We purchased one of the Neversink Farm planters in 2023. I agree there is a learning curve, but not hard to catch on to. We have issues with poor germination of sweet corn and peas and soybeans for edamame. This was a wonderful success. In addition we can get corn ready to go into our Michigan garden before the soil temperature could support good germination. Best corn planting in a long time. We also plant our onions this way. As home gardeners it would not make economic sense, but we really appreciate not having to crawl along planting those things one block at a time, and it is sure fast. It is a luxury I love.
We also are involved in a non-profit greenhouse project that is connected with a Christian high school. We have used our planter in the greenhouse, as they don't have one yet. It really speeds things up for that enterprise. Great tool for the intended application. Thanks for the video.
Great presentation, as always. My brain wants to correct the Nitten logo to Kitten 😹
Who is he talking to? Because he has a microphone on and he isn't looking at this camera.
After having 1000 beet transplants lost (transplanted by hand) last year this tool, shared sounds like a win. You made my day with the part time is ok. I love planting, and I'm good at it, but part time is all I can afford to do in my market area. I needed to hear this…Thanks