Straight answers
Frequently asked questions
If your question isn’t here, call 519-379-6210 and ask. You’ll be talking to the person who designs and builds the machines, and you’ll get a real answer rather than a brochure.
Buying and fit
Back to top ↑- What is the Velocity PL-22 garlic planter?
- The PL-22 is a semi-automatic, ride-on garlic planter that mounts to a standard Category 1 three-point hitch. Two people ride it and set each clove root-end down while the planter opens the furrow, controls spacing and closes the row. Each rider places 600 to 800 cloves an hour, so the machine plants 1,200 to 1,600 an hour. It weighs about 500 lb.
- How many cloves of garlic can I plant per hour?
- Between 1,200 and 1,600 cloves an hour, from two riders placing 600 to 800 each. Because riders are seated rather than kneeling, that rate holds through the afternoon instead of falling away as the day goes on.
- Do you ship garlic planters to the United States?
- Yes. We ship across Canada, into the United States, and internationally including Europe and Australia. The PL-22 crates down to 52" L × 48" W × 70" H at roughly 500 lb and ships by freight. Send us your delivery address and we will get you a shipping estimate.
- How is the planter shipped?
- Crated for freight at 52" L × 48" W × 70" H, roughly 500 lb. We ship worldwide and will quote freight to your address.
- What size tractor do I need to run a PL-22?
- For planting, tractor size is not really a constraint. Anything that can lift the planter on a Category 1 three-point hitch will pull it. Horsepower matters at the other end of the season: the UC undercutters need at least 40 HP to pull a blade through the bed at harvest depth.
- How many people ride the planter?
- Two. Each rider places 600 to 800 cloves an hour, so the machine plants 1,200 to 1,600 an hour. The riders are seated, which is why that rate holds through a full day rather than dropping off the way kneeling does.
- What does a garlic planter cost?
- Call 519-379-6210 for a price. Every machine is built to the grower’s row spacing, bed width and wheel configuration, so there is no single list price — but you will get a real number on the phone, not a runaround.
- How long is the lead time from order to delivery?
- 1 to 2 weeks to build, plus shipping time to your address. Order well ahead of your planting window and there is plenty of room.
- Is there a warranty?
- One year. If something fails inside that, call us — you will be talking to the person who built it.
- How many acres does the PL-22 make sense for?
- Roughly one to twenty acres. Under an acre, hand-planting is a hard week rather than a project and no machine pays for itself against that. Above twenty to thirty acres you are usually better off with a fully automated planter, because no realistic crew can ride a machine fast enough to get the crop in. What actually decides it is whether you can find the people, not the acreage.
How the planter works
Back to top ↑- Why is the planter semi-automatic instead of fully automated?
- Because clove orientation matters more than raw speed. Automated cup and belt planters meter cloves quickly but cannot control which way up a clove lands, and inverted or sideways cloves grow bent necks and smaller, misshapen bulbs that get culled at grading. The PL-22 automates the furrow, the spacing and the closing, and leaves a person to set each clove root-down — which eliminates double-drops, skips and misoriented cloves.
- Does the planter double-plant or skip?
- No. Because a person places each clove by hand, there are no double-drops and no skips. Those are the two failure modes that make fully automated planters expensive to run in garlic.
- Can I change the row count and row spacing?
- Row count and row spacing are configured to your beds before the machine ships. Send us your bed width, row centres and in-row spacing and we will build to them.
- Can I change row spacing after delivery?
- Row-to-row spacing is adjustable on the machine. In-row spacing is not — it is set by the wheels, which are made to your spacing. Changing in-row spacing later means a different set of wheels, so tell us what you plant at before we build.
- What in-row spacing does it plant at?
- Whatever you specify. In-row spacing is determined by the planting wheels, and we make the wheels to suit your spacing rather than shipping a fixed setting.
Harvesting and undercutters
Back to top ↑- What does an undercutter do?
- It runs a blade under the bed at harvest, lifting and loosening the soil so garlic pulls out clean by hand instead of tearing off at the neck. Without one, a share of the crop snaps and stays in the ground, and what does come out arrives bruised.
- What is the difference between the UC-36 and the UC-48?
- Blade width. The UC-36 has a 36-inch blade and suits narrower beds and smaller tractors; the UC-48 has a 48-inch blade and covers wider beds in a single pass.
- Can the undercutter mount to the planter?
- Yes — that is how it is designed to work. Take the planting wheels off the PL-22 and fit the undercutter in their place. You are not buying a second implement or a second three-point frame, just the undercutter itself.
- Do I need the planter to use an undercutter?
- Yes. The UC-36 and UC-48 mount to the PL-22 frame in place of the planting wheels, so the planter is what carries them. If you already run a PL-22 — or an older Garlic-EEZ planter — adding an undercutter is a straightforward upgrade.
- What size tractor do I need for an undercutter?
- At least 40 HP. The blade runs 6 to 8 inches below the bulb and the load is draft, not weight — the machine itself is only about 100 lb, but pulling a blade through a bed at that depth is what sets the horsepower requirement.
- How deep does the undercutter run?
- 6 to 8 inches below the bulb, deep enough to lift and loosen the whole root mass so bulbs come out clean by hand rather than snapping at the neck.
Crops beyond garlic
Back to top ↑- What else can the PL-22 plant besides garlic?
- It was designed for garlic, and it also plants tulips, ginseng, hops, turmeric, squash and cucumbers. Potatoes work too, but need an adaptation to the machine — ask us before you order. The mechanism suits most crops planted from a clove, bulb, set, rhizome or large seed.
- Can it plant onion sets?
- Yes. We build a dedicated onion planting wheel. An onion set is a small bulb that goes in root plate down at a spacing, which is the same problem a garlic clove presents. Note this is sets only — onion seed needs precision metering and transplants need a transplanter, and the PL-22 does neither.
About the company
Back to top ↑- Is Velocity Farm Equipment the same company as Garlic-EEZ?
- Yes. Velocity Farm Equipment builds the machines that were sold under the Garlic-EEZ name from 2016 to 2022. Doug Gilbert designed and fabricated those planters and undercutters, and took the operation over under the new name in early 2022, from the same shop in Dundalk, Ontario.
- Can I get parts for an older Garlic-EEZ planter?
- Yes. We still support machines built under the Garlic-EEZ name. Call 519-379-6210 with your unit details and we will sort you out.
- Where are Velocity garlic planters made?
- Every machine is designed, fabricated and assembled in-house at 37 Hanbury Street, Dundalk, Ontario, Canada. Nothing is contract-manufactured, and nothing is imported and rebadged.
- Who do I talk to?
- Doug Gilbert. Call 519-379-6210 or email doug@velocityfarmequipment.com. You will be talking to the person who designs and builds the machines.
Not answered here?
Ask us directly
Some questions we haven’t published because we don’t have a confirmed answer yet, and we’d rather say so than guess. Call and you’ll get “we don’t know” where that’s the truth.
Tell us about your beds
Get a quote
Send us your row spacing, bed width, tractor horsepower and how many acres you plant. We will tell you exactly how we would configure a machine for you — and if we are not the right fit, we will say so.