Abstract: The transplanting apparatus includes a mobile frame supporting a rigid disc and a flexible disc mounted on a transverse shaft for rotation in unison about a horizontal axis as the frame traverses a strip of soil to transfer plants from a supply tape to a furrow. Although the discs are spaced apart somewhat at their centers or hubs, at an upper location the flexible disc is flexed even a greater distance away from the rigid disc to provide a continuously open space for the successive reception of the leaf ends of plants delivered from a supply tape. At a lower location the flexible disc is separated from the rigid disc only enough to open the discs for the successive release of the plants into the furrow. As the plants are transferred from the upper location to the lower location, the periphery of the flexible disc is pressed toward the rigid disc to assure retention of the plants during their downward travel. The apparatus further includes a furrow opener and a furrow closer.

Abstract: Supporting the forward end of a mobile frame is a rotatable drum having a number of sawtooth-shaped or beveled ribs extending circumferentially around the drum. Owing to the sawtooth configuration of the circumferential ribs, each rib opens a furrow having a sloping side and a vertical side. A plant supply tape is employed, one for each furrow to be formed, which has a series of resilient blocks secured to a nonstretchable flexible belt, the root ends of the plants to be transplanted being releasably held in the slits between adjacent blocks. A roller mechanism changes the direction of tape travel directly over the sloping side of the furrow being supplied with plants from the tape so that each slit is opened to deposit a plant on the sloping side of the furrow. A scraper blade, one for each furrow, extends downwardly from the frame to backfill the furrow immediately after several plants have been dropped therein.