Potting Machines with Tray Filling and Flat Fillers

Are you looking for a cost-effective, user-friendly solution for potting, tray filling, and flat filling, without the need for extensive labor or complicated machinery?

Container Filling

Microgreen Flat Filling

Tray Filling

How fast does it fill?

Explore our range of cost-effective, semi-automatic potting machines designed for various growing environments. Our equipment offers efficiency and consistency without breaking your budget. It’s trusted by plant nurseries, garden centers, vegetable growers, microgreen producers, wholesale growers, hemp, cannabis, and other unique applications.

Forget about wasting media during potting – our machines include an integrated soil return hopper for recycling. No more unnecessary conveyor use, and you can set up these potting machines right next to your grow area.

We also offer a versatile tray and flat filler option for individual or small container filling. If you have a tractor with a wider bucket, hopper extensions are available for added functionality.

Single Person Potting Machine

nursery potting machine

Which machine is right for you?

mini flat filler

Front Load

If you pot small volumes and use bagged material (3.8cf bagged material or less), the FRONT LOAD is a good choice.
$ 7,900
  • 110V Single Phase Power
  • Single Person Operation
  • Shovel or Load Bagged Material from the front at waist level
  • Up to 1/2 YARD MAX CAPACITY (65 gallon mixing)
  • COMPACT design fits through a standard 36” doorway.
  • AUTOMATICALLY collect and recycle extra material
  • VERSATILE and EASY TO USE
Potting machine with hopper

Rear Load

If you buy in premixed material and store it on a pad or use a tractor or skid steer to load material, the REAR LOAD is a good choice.
$ 9,800
  • 110V Single Phase
  • Single Person Operation
  • Load with smaller buckets up to 55" wide
  • Rear Load height of 59″
  • Up to 1 YARD MAX CAPACITY (no mixing)
  • AUTOMATICALLY collect and recycle extra material
  • VERSATILE and EASY TO USE

Double

If you want to have more than one operator potting at a time and have a tractor or skid steer to load material, the DOUBLE is a good choice.
$ 19,800
  • 220V Single Phase Power
  • One or Two Person INDEPENDENT Operation
  • Load full size buckets up to 90" wide
  • Rear Load height of 59″​
  • Up to 1 3/4 Yard MAX CAPACITY (no mixing)
  • AUTOMATICALLY collect and recycle extra material
  • VERSATILE and EASY TO USE
O'Hara's Nursery
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"O'Hara's Nursery is a grower/retailer in Lavonia, Georgia with one 28' X 95' greenhouse and 5000 sq feet of outdoor growing area, We saw the Stilt Pro Rear Load potting machine at a trade show and instantly knew it would be a game changer for our operation. The machine handles bark mix and peat mix. Compressed bale mixes grind up easily and quickly. We can pot bare root material faster and fill anything between 140 count plug trays and 30 gal nursery containers with ease. We love having our Stilt Pro doing all the hard work for our growing operation."
C.H. Fulfillment
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"Quality equipment and super awesome folks to work with! Highly recommend!"
Schulte, Inc
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“Our experience with the Stilt Pro double potting machine has been excellent after 1 season and about 12,000 plants from 4” to #7. The machine is easy to use, adjust, load, and maintain. I was a bit skeptical as we make our own proprietary mix and wasn’t sure if this machine was designed for commercial mixes but it has handled everything we’ve thrown at it without any issues. We looked at other units and decided on this, and I’m very pleased with our decision.”
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Customizations, Accessories and Options

Tray Filler and Flat Filler Option (+$500)

For the grower that wants versatility and additional functionality with their potting machine or soil mixer, the tray filler option is a great addition to enhance your productivity.  It adds minimal complexity and does not require additional people to operate. 

In a few seconds, you can go from a pot or container filler to a flat filler.  The entire flat filler mechanism swings in and latches or swings out of the way when not in use.

For longer term storage, you can pull the tray and filler off of the hinges and store it away.

COMPATIBILITY: Front Load, Single Rear Load, Double

Hopper Extension Wings Option (+$500)

If you like the tray and flat filler options, these hopper extensions will take you to the next level of productivity.  

You can use this to catch all the material that would normally fall down the side if you have a wider bucket than the hopper will allow.

This lets you use a 6ft wide bucket on your tractor or skid steer.

COMPATIBILITY: Single Rear Load

Front Load Casters (+$750)

For the grower that regularly moves their equipment around, we have a more portable option that allows it to be pushed around by hand on asphalt or concrete surfaces.

COMPATIBILITY: Front Load

Towable Wagon Option (+$2500)

For the grower that regularly moves their equipment around, we have a more portable option that allows it to be towed behind a tractor or side by side.

COMPATIBILITY: Front Load, Single Rear Load

 

Weatherproof Covers (+$500)

If you want to protect your equipment in the off season or when not in use.

COMPATIBILITY: Front Load, Rear Load

How fast can you fill containers with these machines?

SINGLE OUTLET MACHINES1 Gallon3 Gallons7 Gallons
Pots per minuteTwelveFiveTwo
Pots per hour720300120
DOUBLE OUTLET MACHINE 1 Gallon3 Gallons7 Gallons
Pots per minuteTwenty FourTenFour
Pots per hour1440600240

*These potting rates are based on the following video: https://youtu.be/C-GvSCtSK5s

 As you probably suspect, your results may very based on your specific application, setup and material used.

COMPARABLE PER MAN HOUR RATE

If you compare these potting machines to a traditional potting line, they will pot at a similar PER MAN HOUR rate but with much less people required to meet those rates.

JUST AS FAST BUT WITH LESS PEOPLE

If you compare these machines to hand potting on a wagon or bench, you’ll see that you can get better efficiency with less people.

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front load potting machine information
rear load potting machine information
large bare root potting machine
potting machine specifications

Learn about other nursery equipment:

Share some contact info and we'll see how we can help you!

Share some contact info and we'll see how we can help you!

What does the warranty look like?

3 Year, Unlimited Hours Warranty – INCLUDED

What does it include?

Includes: Problem identification, remote trouble shooting of issue, support and instruction for proper repair, and providing replacement of failed parts.

What is excluded?

Excludes – Misuse of equipment (including using non horticultural potting mixes with high sand and field soil content) or improper care, such as leaving fertilizer in machine for an extended period of time.  Wear parts (chain, slats, wear plates or surfaces).  External physical damage inflicted on the machine.  Labor repair costs.

We will walk you through the repair process and make sure you're happy.

What about Service Parts?

Yes, we keep inventory of most all parts. Most all of the components are either US Sourced or a common off the shelf component. We are having some supply chain issues on components, but we are working through the best way to manage that.

What about Repair?

All of our machines are designed right here in the US.  We design these machines to be easily repairable by an inexperienced worker.  Should a problem arise, you won’t need to weld or fabricate a new part.  The entire machine is bolted together and you can simply bolt in a replacement part.

The hopper capacity seems low

We have heard that concern, I get it, you won’t be able to load a machine up and let a person pot plants for a day.

Some perspective – The rear load machine holds about 3/4 – 1 cubic yard which is up to about 200 gallons of material. That gives you about 15 minutes of runtime without stopping.

The reason for the smaller equipment size is to primarily keep the price and complexity down.

Increasing the machine size has a few unwelcome side effects:

-Increase horsepower requirements which means increased power – now you have to have dedicated power for the machine.

-Increasing the hopper size also increases the physical size of the machine which increases the overall cost and reduces portability

You may have not made a purchase on a potting machine in the past because of the overall cost.

We're being cautious around those concerns and trying to work within your business goals.

Is this production rate slow?

From time to time, we hear that our production rates appear slow. Look at it this way though. You have 5 or 10 workers running a high-speed line. SOMETHING GOES WRONG, you now have all these people standing around and/or you need to find a different job for them.

What's your real per man hour potting rate?

If you have a machine problem with a high-speed line you’re completely shut down.  With a cell-based design, you have a small part of the potting operation down.  Your efficiency is similar whether you have 1 or 4 people operating STILT.PRO machines.

Your business is complex, don't make it worse.

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