JIM KILGORE TRIALS THE SAVANNAH TREE PLANTER

JIM KILGORE TRIALS THE SAVANNAH PLANTER

Late in the 1998-1999 planting season in Georgia, Jim Killgore approached us to see if we would help with a tree planter to finish his extra planting commitment for the season. We supplied him with our newly released 830 tree planter and Jim was able to successfully complete the extra planting load. He was well satisfied with the results and has ordered two planters for the following 1999-2000 planting season.

This 830 tree planter is very basic machine using a large coulter set at a slight angle to the line of travel to cut through the debris and open the planting slot.

Fitted beside the coulter there is an astralloy blade opener which ensures the opening slot is kept at a consistent width to enable the manual placement of the seedling.

There is a single large presswheel, angled to push the soil back that has been moved to one side by the coulter blade.

This arrangement is unique in its simplicity. The big feature is that the planter operator sits low to the ground facing forward and can very comfortably place the seedling in the slot. At the end of a twelve-hour day, this comfort factor can be a major feature in the tree planting operation.

The Savannah 830 tree planter has been designed with simplicity of construction in mind and this has eventuated in a very straight forward, easy-to-maintain tree planter which will last for years. We have tried to produce a planter with as few moving parts as possible.

This tree planter is suitable for use on Savannah beds as it is an extremely robust unit to handle sites that have not been sheared.

The planter can be fitted on a wheel tractor with the 3-point linkage, or it could also be used on a small crawler tractor, but we feel that's unnecessary when working on Savannah beds.

On the day of our visit to the planting operation outside Valdosta, southern Georgia, we asked the operator what he thought of the Savannah planter and due to his limited English he conveyed his feeling to us with a big smile, an upraised thumb and the one word "SW'

We understand that, as leader of the planting team, he pulled rank to be able to always be the operator of the Savannah planter.

Click here for more info on the Savannah 830 Series of Tree Planters