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Planting equipment

PL-22 Garlic Planter

The PL-22 is a tractor-mounted, ride-on garlic planter built for growers planting roughly one to twenty acres. Two people ride it, each placing 600 to 800 cloves an hour — 1,200 to 1,600 an hour for the machine — with every clove set root-end down at your chosen spacing. It mounts to a standard Category 1 three-point hitch and is configured to your row spacing and bed width before it ships.

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The Velocity PL-22 garlic planter on a white background: a galvanised steel frame with a green seed tray along the top, two spiked planting wheels beneath it, and two rails running back to a pair of operator seats.

In the field

Two people sit on the back of a PL-22 planter towed by an orange Kubota tractor, placing garlic cloves by hand into a freshly opened row on a hillside farm.
A PL-22 planting garlic in Australia. Two riders, seated, placing every clove root-down.
A PL-22 garlic planter working a field behind a tractor, with the planted row closing behind the machine.

Specifications

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ModelPL-22
TypeSemi-automatic, ride-on, tractor-mounted
HitchCategory 1 three-point hitch, standard
Planting rate1,200–1,600 cloves per hour with two riders
Assembled dimensions96" L × 48" W × 40" H
Shipping dimensions52" L × 48" W × 70" H
WeightApproximately 500 lb
Row countConfigured to order
Row spacingRow-to-row spacing is adjustable
Minimum tractor HPNo practical minimum for plantingAny tractor that can lift the planter on a Category 1 hitch will pull it. Horsepower only becomes a constraint at harvest — see the undercutters.
Operators2 riders600–800 cloves per rider per hour.
In-row spacingSet by wheel configurationWheels are made to your in-row spacing. Changing it later means a different set of wheels, not an adjustment.
Lead time1–2 weeks, plus shipping time
Warranty1 year
ShippingWorldwide. Crated for freight.

Need a figure that isn’t listed — horsepower, depth, lead time? Ask us and you’ll get a straight answer from the person who builds the machine.

Why semi-automatic

Fully automated cup and belt planters meter cloves quickly but cannot control orientation. A clove planted sideways or inverted still grows — it just grows a bent neck and a smaller, misshapen bulb that you pay to sort out at grading.

The PL-22 keeps a person in the seat doing the one task that resists automation. Everything else — furrow opening, spacing, closing, covering — is done by the machine. The result is a planter with no double-drops, no skips, and no misoriented cloves.

How that compares to hand-planting and full automation →

Configuring your machine

We build to your beds, not to a catalogue. Before we quote, we ask for:

  1. Bed width and row spacing

    How many rows across, and at what centres.

  2. In-row spacing

    Most garlic growers run four to eight inches.

  3. Your tractor

    Make, model and horsepower, and whether you have a quick hitch.

  4. Acreage

    How much you plant now, and whether you expect that to grow.

  5. Crew size

    How many people you can put on the machine.

One frame, two jobs

The same machine plants in October and harvests in July. Take the planting wheels off, fit an undercutter in their place, and it lifts the crop it put in the ground.

The PL-22 frame configured for planting and for harvest Two side views of the same three-point-hitch frame. On the left, set up for planting in October with spiked planting wheels below the frame and two operator seats behind. On the right, set up for harvest in July with the wheels removed and an undercutter blade fitted in their place, running six to eight inches below the garlic bulbs. OCTOBER · PLANTING Seed tray 2 riders Planting wheels set your in-row spacing. No practical minimum tractor HP. WHEELS OFF BLADE ON JULY · HARVEST Undercutter blade 6–8″ Blade runs 6–8″ below the bulb. Needs 40 HP — draft load, not weight.
The undercutter is an attachment, not a second implement. It mounts to the PL-22 frame in place of the planting wheels — same tractor, same hitch, same machine. Drawing is schematic; see the photographs for the real thing.

See it work

Video: A PL-22 planting garlic A PL-22 planting garlic 0:18

Also in the range

UC-36 UC-36 Garlic Undercutter Tractor-mounted undercutter with a 36-inch blade. Lifts the bed at harvest so bulbs pull clean by hand. UC-48 UC-48 Garlic Undercutter Tractor-mounted undercutter with a 48-inch blade. Covers wider beds in a single pass.

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.

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