Spacing is one of the most labor intensive and least desirable jobs on the nursery. Continuous moving, bending and twisting with filled containers is also the common cause of workers’ injuries. Using robots for spacing and moving, can address these challenges, however has its own challenges. During a panel discussion on the Nursery Mechanization, held at Clayton in Gloucester County on Jan 16, Donald Blew of Centerton Nursery, shared their experiences in using robots.

• Efficient Utilization of the Space: The big reason for Blews was not because they could not find the labor or because it was cheaper, but the fact that robots are good at spacing pots in hexagonal pattern and saving spaces and saves money on that. “If you draw a square and put your four pots in it, you have that extra space in the middle that is not being used. If you put them in a hexagonal pattern, you can use a little bit more of that free area that you have”. Robots can do that with precision. It saved them right around 10 greenhouses last year! At eighteen hundred square feet a piece, it is quite a bit of area gained. Previously, they could fit 24,000 three-gallon hydrangea in one greenhouse. Now, with spacing robots can add 6,000 more, with the same center-to-center distance between pots. So, for every three and a third house they saved at least one house. Other thing is that it lets you know exactly how many plants are going into the greenhouse which gives an ability to refill greenhouse after, say you shipped half of the greenhouse. There are calculations and online spreadsheets that make it easy.
• How does it works? No, they don’t work on GPS. They have very simple lasers and sensors. It is actually taking the number of wheel count, so it knows how far it is going by how many revolutions making. You apply a boundary marker, along one edge/side of the bed, and then put at least one container down-faced to establish the reference point or boundaries. Then enter certain parameters such as specifying either the square or hexagonal pattern, spacing between and within the rows, on robot’s human interface. “Mark the center with D.O.T. tape and now you can use two Robots”, said the owner of four such robots.
• Challenges: Biggest challenge is that it needs a skilled labor to operate and maintain, including charging batteries, every four to five hours. If you have four of them, you may need one person dedicated to just do that. According to Donald Blew ‘there are days when it can take a full day just to troubleshoot or repair the robots’. Machine is expensive, costs around 35,000 per piece. On an average people are getting five to ten years out of them. By the time you have paid off, it’s time to get a new one. However you can lease them through Farm Credit.
• Do your math before buying. Ask yourself how many man-hours you spend, doing the operation that robots could replace. Then do the math as far as payroll. If number make sense and handle the challenges then by all means, buy the Robot.