Pros and Cons of Field Application of Rice Hulls

Here are a few things to consider when analyzing your options for rice hull application:

  • With the field application, you do need to use 50lb bales so the operator can load the machine in the field.
  • If an operator is not careful rice hull blowing can be messy and spread beyond the containers.
  • You are able to allow small liners to grow larger and establish themselves into the new containers before covering with rice hulls.
  • If applying rice hulls on a potting line, you risk jostling the plants when moving the product to the field, this can cause the rice hull barrier to be broken and reduce the efficacy of rice hulls.
  • Applying on the potting line doesn’t allow the media to settle in the container to leave adequate space to the top of container to fill with rice hulls.
  • You are not tied to your potting lines.  This is beneficial in today’s crazy world when supply chains are constantly being disrupted, if you have a late shipment of rice hulls, a problem with application equipment, or are short on labor, you are not tied to your potting line and you don’t need to stop potting.
  • If you have more than one potting machine, a field application can be used to cover all pots and doesn’t require multiple machines.
  • You can use the equipment to re-apply in the event you have plants tip over from high wind.

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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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