Wanted to share our experience utilizing the Checchi Magli WOLF model.
We have fabricated the fertilizer tanks on the this particular piece of equipment.
We spent about an hour and a half troubleshooting the timing, which is the most crucial component. Essentially there are 4 rows with guys inserting starts into the rotating carousel’s “cups”. The carousels rotate with the speed of the tractor as does the “injection” of the fertilizer hose. The fertilizer tanks hold our compost tea() the hoses are set to dispense approximately 3-5oz for each start that is sent through the “kicker.” Your spacing determines your timing and you must determine/ tweak your timing after you plant a couple of starts to ensure the guys on the seats can keep up.
The land we were utilizing came with some labor so we had a lot of help and guys correcting the starts in the ground as we walked.
We had our tractor going as slow as physically possible, maybe <1mph.
2mph is the fastest this planter will work and 1MPH was difficult for us to keep up.
We’re planting the other 25 acres today; this land is hilly and they didn’t plant a cover crop. We’re planting another 35 acres early next week this one had clover and rye for cover crops and the land is flat. I will keep posting with progress.
If anyone is interested in getting Checchi Magli I would suggest studying extensively before purchasing; that is the only thing that saved our ass.
Thank you, this is a good review of the method. Still, much easier on the body than planting by hand? I love the idea of the system adding a specific dose of juice like that to the babies, would you have happened to have added some liquid Mycos to the compost teas?
We had a hard time deciding between the C&M Wolf and the rainflo model (link). We ended up going with the 3 row rainflo because they had a plastic laying implement also. The biggest problem we had with the rainflo was the fact that the planter wouldn’t push the dirt around the plugs after they were place in the ground. The other difference compared to the C&M planter was that we had 2 workers on each row (6 workers total on a 3 row planter). With the 3 row planter we averaged about 2-2.5 acres/hour which we were happy with. Overall the rainflo planter is still a great option but I wish we would have gone with the C&M.
Can you use a C&M Planter over top of plastic mulch?
Overall are you happy with the planter?
About how many acres are you getting in per hour?
What is your row width? (Ours is 6 foot on center)
the biggest problem we had with the rainflo was the fact that the planter wouldn’t push the dirt around the plugs after they were place in the ground.
This is exactly what we were experiencing. This was a no-till project and I feel that it was causing the planter to not operate correctly. We were also in a hilly area and at certain points, rollers wouldn’t touch and dirt was not rolling over the plant.
Can you use a C&M Planter over top of plastic mulch?
Yes, the WOLF PRO model actually comes with a mulch layer, I believe. We were going to utilize mulch strip originally but opted out. We were attempting to fabricate a drip tape dispenser to the front fo the planter as well but felt like trying to make the one piece of equipment universal was becoming daunting. I will update with progress.
Overall are you happy with the planter?
It’s hard to say right now, we’re going tat our 35-acre plot this week; the ground is sandier and flat. I feel like it will provide more useful. We have 4-row planter with a guy on each row, but we had about 4-6 guys trailing behind fixing starts that didn’t lay. The issues we had were mostly with timing and one of the carrousels would skip on the gear so we had to manually reset it each time by hitting the shaft on the outside of the casing. Wasn’t the end of the world, but definitely a pain in the ass. The biggest Issue I have is that it is an Italian company and we purchased through an equipment provider out of Oklahoma, I will give them 1 more chance before I blast them on here, but they have provided terrible customer service up to this point. Fortunately, we are 2nd and 3rd generation commercial agriculture family that has some " farm-engineering" in -house and have been able to troubleshoot most of the issues ourselves.
About how many acres are you getting in per hour?
It’s hard to say because we were spending so much time fixing “Failed” starts. I’d say it was only planting about 60-70% of the starts completely. I’d say if the tractor was planting perfectly every time we would have been around 2.5 acres/hour, but we were more like 1.2-1.5/hr.
What is your row width? (Ours is 6 foot on center)
Update day 2
We got about 14 acres planted on Day 2.
About a 60% success rate for the planter operating correctly. So essentially about 11,200 starts we’re semi-hand planted…
I can’t say at this time if that was machine or operator error, or alternatively if it was just the conditions of the ground.
So there were two plots as I mentioned. The first plot didn’t have a weed issue s did the second. The second plot 's soil and conditions definitely seemed to express the cultivar’s unique traits better than the first plot, but neither of them has really robust plants. Their vegetative state was short due to extremely late planting.
The second plot had clay-like soil and we used Rye and clover as a cover crop.
We did a completely true no-till and just broadcasted the cover crop; it definitely created some challenges with working the ground.
I am the North America rep for C&M - please let me know if you have any issues in the future with our transplanter - we want to help you! Send us a message at info@besttransplanter.com. We support anyone with questions. Thanks
Nice looking pictures - nice looking machine. I would note also that you have the “no-till” kit which has a ripper and Martin cleaners out front - otherwise a farmer would need to prepare the soil 4-5" deep.
This is NOT a Wolf model - its a Trium model - I can tell by the picture. You have a carousel transplanter. Wolf is for planting through plastic. We have now sold over 2000 Trium machines for transplanting hemp and I can assure you if adjusted properly it works. I have been on farms from Portland Maine to Portland Oregon and have seen our machines work in any conditions. You must know how to adjust the machines and we have a user guide that we put together here. Happy to share the user guide with anyone who needs help understanding the key adjustments - info@besttransplanter.com.
This post made me so grateful for a change in the business and industry paradigm. I can wear jeans and be tatted out and still be a farmer or legit business person these days.
) the hoses are set to dispense approximately 3-5oz for each start that is sent through the “kicker.” Your spacing determines your timing and you must determine/ tweak your timing after you plant a couple of starts to ensure the guys on the seats can keep up.
