Abstract: Palletizing apparatus for bags includes a bag flattener and vibrator, a bag pattern forming diverter, a row forming station, a full layer forming station, a pallet elevator and a pallet magazine. A programmable control for the diverter provides automatic sequencing of the diverter for orienting the bags in left or right lanes on a diverter conveyor to form a selected bag pattern. Either left or right lane can be provided with a turnpost which has a controlled deflector which either exposes the turnpost for rotating the bags 90 degrees or guides bags past the turnpost depending on the selected pattern. The programmable control enables automatic control of the diverter to provide successive layers of the same pattern but with a different orientation and also afford formation of many different bag patterns. The final layer forming station has movable guides to square the patterned layers before deposition on the pallet in the pallet elevator and guide the layer as it is deposited on the pallet.