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Planters performance during a very Short Rotation

Coppice planting

Marco Manzone*, Paolo Balsari

University of Turin, Via Leonardo da Vinci, 44, 10095 Grugliasco, Torino, Italy

article info abstract

Article history: Very Short Rotation Coppice (vSRC) cultivation can become a good economy source for
Received 28 February 2014 farmers, in addition to producing substantial amount of wood and benefits to society. Over
Received in revised form the years, improved cropping and harvesting systems have been developed, which offer a
15 April 2014 good energy balance and acceptable economic results. Little research has been done in
Accepted 18 April 2014 planting operations, where the mechanization is again at experimental level. The goal of
Available online the study is to evaluate the working rate and the working quality of 6 planters used for
vSRC planting with different forestry species (poplar, willow and black locust). The results
Keywords: showed that, the working rate of the planters is low (about 0.6 ha h
1) independently by the
Very Short Rotation Coppice planter type used, and forestry species chosen. Furthermore, it was highlighted the ne-
Planters cessity of setting up a specific planting machine equipped with automatic feed devices and
Time consumption a large surface for propagation material storages, in order to increase the working rate of
Working rate vSRC planting operations.
Working quality ª 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

been developed, which offer a good energy balance [6] and

1. Introduction
In recent years, it has been recorded increasingly a greater
attention to the use of biomass as a fuel for the production of
electrical and thermal energy [1]. New ambitious targets have
been set for the use of biomass, increasing the demand for
wood fuel [2]. Wood biomass is available in many forms and in
all parts of the world, by enabling the deployment of bioenergy
almost everywhere, once the main sources have been identi-
fied and evaluated [3].
Very Short Rotation Coppice (vSRC) cultivation can become
a good economy source for farmers, in addition to producing
substantial amount of wood and benefits to society [4,5]. Over
the years, improved cropping and harvesting systems have
acceptable economic results [7]. Little has been done in
planting operations, where the mechanization is again at
experimental level.
Depending on by species use for SRC plantation, we can have
different starting material. In poplar and willow vSRC, it is
possible to use cuttings and rods, while in black locust vSRC only
rooting plants. The various “forms” of the propagation material
required different machines for its planting. In fact, vSRC
planting can be performed with various types of machines.
Most part of these machines are not specifically designed for
this crop, but are “imported” from other agricultural sectors
(horticultural and nursery sector) or only prototypes [8,9].
The goal of this study is to evaluate time consumption,
working rate and work quality for 6 SRC planters.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: marco.manzone@unito.it (M. Manzone), Paolo.balsari@unito.it (P. Balsari).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2014.04.029
0961-9534/ª 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 b i o m a s s a n d b i o e n e r g y 6 7 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 8 8 e1 9 2
2. Materials
In this work, we have tested the main planters used in Italy for
the vSRC planting. In detail, the trials were carried out with a
“rod planter” (a machine that work with only rods), three
“cutting planters” (machines that work only cuttings) and two
“universal planters” (machines that can be working with
cuttings and rooting plants) (Table 1).
All planters tested were of “mounted type” and they were
different mainly by plantation device. In detail, the plantation
device of Rotor planter is made up by a caterpillar on which
track shoes is fixed a vertical cylinder. Into each cylinder scrolls
a steel piston. When the track shoe is in upper position, the
piston scroll down to gravity force and the operator can insert
the cutting in the cylinder. Successively, the caterpillar rotates
due to forward effect and the truck shoe is linked to the soil. At
this point, the piston scroll down thanks a mechanic device
inserting the cutting into the soil. The plantation device of
Berto planter is composed by a steel wheel on which circum-
ference are fixed of pliers a regular intervals. Also in this case,
the wheel rotates to forward effect and plants held by pliers
comes puts into the furrow previously opened by a furrower.
Successively, the furrow is closed by two steel wheel of small
diameter. Similar plantation device is mounted on Spapperi
TTP 200 and Allasia T2 planters. Differently from Berto planter,
cuttings are not positioned in a furrow, but they come inserted
into the soil by a hydraulic piston (Spapperi TTP 200) or a me-
chanic piston (Allasia T2). Easier design is the planter Allasia
R1. This planter is made up of a furrower and a photocells
system. This later warn to operator by a green light, the correct
position to insert plants into the furrow. After which, the
furrow is closed by two steel wheel. Salix Maskiner Step planter
is the only one that works with rods. Rods come put in plan-
tation device by operator with manual method. Successively,
during the forward machine, rods come into the soil using a
belt transmission, and they are cut automatically by specific
knifes at the desired length.
3. Methods
Trials were carried out in March 2011 considering a very Short
Rotation Coppice plantation of a hybrid poplar (Populus x can-
adensis), a willow (Salix) and a black locust (Robinia pseudoaca-
cia) because these are the main species used for the
afforestation of North Italian farmland and can be considered
representative of planters testing.
All planters worked on one type of alluvial soil only (sandy
soil). The plots of land used for the plant had an extension of
Table 1 e Technical characteristics of the planters used in the trials.
Rotor Allasia T2 Spapp. TTP 200
Type Cutting Cutting
Rows (no) 2 2
Plant distance (m) variable variable
Workers (no) 3 3
Mass (kg) 1400 780
Power tractor (kW) 52 65
189
at least 3 ha and were collocated on flat country. All plots had
a similar physical soil characteristic. The lands chosen had a
rectangular form and a length at of least 200 m. These areas
were closed in Po valley (Piedmont region) near the towns
Alessandria and Cuneo in Italy, because in this geographic
area there are good climate conditions for SRC cultivation.
Besides the trials during three days only, all tests were carried
out in same moisture soil (10e12%) and climate conditions
(temperature 9e11  C, and relative humidity 69e73%). For this
reason, machines were plot allocated with random methods.
A starting density of plants of about 6700 per hectare and a
3.00 m  0.50 m spacing were considered. Before the trials, the
soil had been prepared with a plowing of 0.40 m of depth and
an harrowing intervention.
All “cutting planters” have worked with poplar and willow
cuttings of 9e25 mm diameter and 200e220 mm length, while
the “universal planters”, besides having worked with poplar
and willow cuttings similar to those of “cuttings planters”,
have worked with black locust rooting plants of 0.60 height.
Cuttings with a diameter higher of 9 mm were used,
because this is the minimum size to ensure an adequate
carbohydrate reserve to sustain the cutting before establish-
ment [10]. The max diameter used in the trials was 25 mm
because it is the limit of the planting system of the Rotor
machine.
For the “rod machines”, poplar and willow rods of
20e40 mm diameter and about 3.00 m length, were used.
Before the planting operation, all propagation material
were immersed in water for 48 h so as to hydrate it as much as
possible in order to facilitate rooting and to preserve by an
eventual drying for many days after the planting.
For each machine, working times and manpower require-
ment were recorded on the field, according to CIOSTA (Comité
International d’Organisation Scientificue du Travail en Agri-
colture) methodology, on at least 5000 m2 surface areas and
for periods not shorter than 2 h [11]. In particular, the tests
were carried out considering a period of 3 h for each planter.
Forward speed has been measured with two couples of pho-
tocells (ZOOM Z2E) positioned at the distances of 50 m. The
photocells were collocated at the distance from headland
boundaries of at least 50 m. All distances have been measured
by a flexible ruler (LUX) with accuracy of 2 mm. The travel
time and the different working time element were recorded
with a centesimal digital stopwatch (Hanhart PROFIL 5).
Working rate has been estimated with an analytic method
considering the worked surface in the unit time. In this study,
this parameter has been expressed in ha h
1.
The manpower requirement was determined considering
the minimum number of operators necessary to the planter
and the working time spent to unit surface (hectare).
Allasia R1 Berto Salix Maskiner Step
Cutting Universal Universal Rod
2 1 1 2
0.5 variable 0.5 variable
3 2 2 3
1150 350 650 580
62 44 44 65
190 b i o m a s s a n d b i o e n e r g y 6 7 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 8 8 e1 9 2

Table 2 e Working times of different planters tested.

Rotor Allasia T2 Sapperi TTP A 200 Allasia R1 Berto Salix Maskiner Step
Total woking times (%) Unproductive time 3.6 4.1 4.0 3.9 3.9 2.8
Working time 83.2 81.3 82.4 85.9 85.8 80.6
Turning time 7.4 8.1 7.8 4.1 3.9 9.0
Planter refilling time 5.8 6.5 5.8 6.1 6.4 7.6
Plant time (s) 2.9 2.8 2.8 5.8 5.6 1.3
Forward speed (km h
1) 1.0 1.2 1.2 1.1 1.1 4.0
Manpower (h ha
1) 5.36 5.20 5.26 7.06 6.98 2.49

Work quality of each machine tested was determined
evaluating the percentage of cutting engraftment and
measuring the distance from plants. Cutting engraftment has
been determined, on sample areas of 120 m2 large, 90 days after
plantation. Sample areas positions into Short Rotation Coppice
plant were carried out by a random method, but considering a
minimum distance of 6 m (2 rows) from the sidelines. We took
this precaution in order to avoid any influence on the site
conditions, typical of the sideline (drought, not perfect soil
preparation, effects due to adjacent crops, etc.).
On each vSRC, we have considered three different sample
areas (3 replications).
All data collected were processed with Microsoft Excel
Software and analyzed with the SSPS 20 (2013). The statistical
significance of the eventual differences between planters was
tested with REGW test, because it has a higher statistically
power with this data distribution.
4. Results
During the trials all planters have guaranteed a good level of
efficiency showing a high productive working time (>80%).
Unproductive time, mainly due to workers’ break, were
reduced (<4.1%) (Table 2).
The higher working rate has been obtained by Salix
Maskiner Step with values about 1.21 ha per working hour.
The working rate of other planters was much lower and al-
ways below 0.58 ha per hour (Table 3).
Statistical analysis showed significant different perfor-
mances only between planter categories and not between the
machines included in each category (Table 4).
Regarding the manpower requirements, the planter that
operated with rods obtained a values of 2.46 h ha
1. This value
is lower than 64% of Universal planters and 52% of Cutting
planters (Table 2).
In general, all machines have been guaranteed a good work
quality with cutting/plant engraftment more than 97%, except
Salix Maskiner Step, which showed a low engraftment (92%)
(Table 6).
Statistical analysis showed significant different perfor-
mances only between the rod planter and other planters,
because the difference between universal and cutting planters
is significantly small (Table 5).
The results of error distance between the plants positioned
on the same row were under 2%, while the error distances
between the rows were max 3%.
5. Discussion
Working times obtained during a vSRC plantation were
similar to those obtained in harvesting operations showed in
other works [12e14]. In general, the manpower required for
the vSRC planting have an incidence of 13.6%, which is 2.1
percentage points higher than harvesting and transport op-
erations [6].
Between the cutting planters and universal planters there
are not any differences regarding working rate and time
consumption. In fact, considering a working width of 6 m for
all machines, the productivity values are similar. Better re-
sults, in terms of productivity work, have been obtained with
using the rod planter because with this machine it is possible
to operate with higher forward speed (4.0 km h
1).
The low forward speed (1.2 km h
1) showed by cutting and
universal planters is linked to its feeding manual operation. In
fact, these machines could work with a speed of
3.0e4.0 km h
1, but the operator would not be able to keep
pace. The operator have to take a cutting/plant from the
storage box, place the apex of the gems upwards and put it in
planting elements. All these operations required an average
time of 5 s which limited the forward speed of the planter.

Table 3 e Working rate (ha hL1) of different planters tested with different starting materials.
Poplar Willow Black locust
Mean SD IQR Mean SD IQR Mean SD IQR
Cuttings planters Rotor 0.56 0.01 0.010 0.56 0.01 0.005 e e e
Allasia T2 0.57 0.01 0.005 0.57 0.01 0.005 e e e
Spapperi TTP A 200 0.57 0.01 0.010 0.57 0.01 0.005 e e e
Universal planters Allasia R1 0.28 0.01 0.005 0.28 0.01 0.005 0.29 0.01 0.005
Berto 0.29 0.01 0.005 0.27 0.01 0.010 0.28 0.01 0.005
Rods planter Salix Maskiner Step 1.20 0.01 0.005 1.22 0.01 0.005 e e e

Notes: SD ¼ standard deviation; IQR ¼ interquartile range.

 b i o m a s s a n d b i o e n e r g y 6 7 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 8 8 e1 9 2 191

Table 4 e Working rate: significant difference between Table 6 e Plant engraftment: significant difference
planters tested. between planters tested.
Ryan-Einot-Gabriel-Welsch Fa Ryan-Einot-Gabriel-Welsch Fa
N 1 2 3 N 1 2 3
Universal planters Allasia R1 9 0.277 Rods planter Salix Maskiner Step 6 91.67
Berto 9 0.284 Universal planters Allasia R1 9 97.56
Cuttings planters Rotor 6 0.561 Berto 9 97.89 97.89
Spapperi TTP A 200 6 0.568 Cuttings planters Spapperi TTP A 200 6 98.00 98.00
Allasia T2 6 0.575 Allasia T2 6 98.17 98.17
Rods planter Salix Maskiner Step 5 1.212 Rotor 6 98.50
Sig. 0.150 0.295 1.000 Sig. 1.00 0.29 0.31

Alfa ¼ 0.05. Alfa ¼ 0.05.

a a
Exist more test REGW F. Exist more test REGW F.

device able to feed planters automatically. The realization of

The working rate of the planters is low not only because
the forward speed is low, but also because it is necessary to
upload frequently the planters. In fact, the material used to
plant is bulky and the planters do not have a large storage
surface. This problem is big when the rows have a long length
(>200 m). In fact, in order to reduce the possibility to stop in
the middle of the field, planting machines must be reloaded
every time it is in headland.
Low engraftment (92%) showed by Salix Maskiner Step is
linked to operative problems: the breaking of some buds during
the conveyance of the rod towards the planting system and
rods are cut randomly (sometimes there are no vital buds).
In order to guarantee a better condition for the starting
material (homogenous sizes and number of vital buds), cut-
tings must be prepared by operator. The use of cutting or
rooting plants do not show differences in engraftment quality.
For this reason, the choice of starting material typology can be
provided only in function of the characteristics of forestry
species planted.
In general, the planters have a big mass (about 600e700 kg)
and require a little power (15e20 kw). For this reason, the tractor
must be chosen in function of the planter mass and not for the
power required because it must be able to lift up the planting
machine during headland turning. In fact, in order to carry out
all maneuvers in safety conditions it is necessary to use tractors
with nominal power of 40e60 kW. This situation is common also
in other agricultural sectors, where the implements are heavy
and the tractor is chosen for its mass to guarantee the longitu-
dinal stability during the maneuvers [15e17].
At present, it does not exist an automatic system to feed
planters, but it could be interesting developing a specific
this specific prototype could increase the working rate and
reduce manpower requirements of the planting operations.
In the forestry planting, the setup of specific planting de-
vices allowed to obtain good results in term of work pro-
ductivity and cost efficiency [18,19]. Also, regress studies
showed that it is possible to maintain good performances of
work quality until forward speed of 8.0 km h
1 [20,21].
Furthermore, if the planters had a higher working produc-
tivity, it would be easier to plan the vSRC planting because
the optimal time to perform this operation is short
(MarcheApril) [6].
The distance error between the cuttings/plants on the row
is very low (<2%) because this distance is guaranteed by the
placing between the planting elements fixed to the planters.
The only exception is the Allasia R1 planter, where the correct
distance of planting is signalized to an operator by a green
light. In this case, the operator puts the plant directly in a grow
which is opened and, successively, closed by planting device
of the planter.
The distance error between the rows (3%) is higher than
between the plants of the same row (2%). The error is higher
because that distance is identified at sight by the tractor
driver. These values are similar to those obtained in other
works carried out on the precision seed drills [20].
The research has still highlighted that, by characteristics of
planting system of tested planters (the cuttings are pushed
mechanically into the soil), it is necessary to prepare the soil
with deep plowing (350e450 mm). In a compact soil it is
impossible to insert the cuttings without breaking them.
Furthermore, previous crop residues could cause a not work-
ing properly of the planting system because these planters

Table 5 e Plant engraftment (%) using different planters and stating materials.
Poplar Willow Black locust
Mean SD IQR Mean SD IQR Mean SD IQR
Cuttings planters Rotor 98.3 0.5 0.5 98.7 0.5 0.5 e e e
Allasia T2 98.7 0.5 0.5 97.5 0.5 0.5 e e e
Spapperi TTP A 200 97.3 0.5 0.5 98.7 0.5 0.5 e e e
Universal planters Allasia R1 97.3 0.5 0.5 97.3 0.5 0.5 97.2 0.5 0.5
Berto 98.3 0.5 0.5 98.0 0.5 0.5 98.0 0.5 0.5
Rods planter Salix Maskiner Step 91.7 0.5 0.5 91.7 0.5 0.5 e e e

Notes: SD ¼ standard deviation; IQR ¼ interquartile range.

192 b i o m a s s a n d b i o e n e r g y 6 7 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 1 8 8 e1 9 2
didn’t have a specific device (toothed coulters) to cut the crop
residues [22e24].
In conclusion, this work showed that the working rate of
the vSRC planting operation, in general, is low (about
0.6 ha h
1) independently by planters used and forestry spe-
cies considered. Furthermore, it highlighted the necessity of
setting up a specific planter equipped with automatic feed
devices and a large surface for propagation material storages,
in order to increase the working rate of vSRC planting
operations.
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